


Skimmons: One Shots

by TaraTyler



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:27:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 47,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5099141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraTyler/pseuds/TaraTyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>drabbles and minifics about the awesome bioquake</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble. I promise something better ASAP

“You put her down right this instant.” Skye growls. Before this had all begun, she had complained about the stiffness of what Fitz and the others had affectionately begun to refer to as her supersuit. It was anything but stiff now. It was blood stained and flexible now, lived in and battled in. Rage colored her voice now as Loki, the brother of Thor, held Jemma aloft with some sort of magic.  
“You’re some sort of feisty little human, are you not? Or maybe not, you seem to be the one causing these Midgardian tremors.” he says flippantly, unconcerned by the fact that with each of his words, the world shook a little bit more.  
“I am a little bit more than human and a little bit less than anything else.” Skye confesses. “And right now I would very much like for you to give me back Dr. Simmons. Preferably before I lose my temper. That is generally when the bad stuff starts to happen.”  
“Skye, stop it! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Coulson shouts.  
“Maybe I don’t care.” she murmurs but everyone can still hear her. Skye charges, taking a running leap and using her powers to keep herself suspended in midair, headed towards the Norse god. she fires twice, directly at his face as a distraction and bounces herself off of a wall to land a roundhouse across his ribs. She lands a good few feet away to his left and uses her power to pull Jemma down from her frozen state in midair and into her arms.  
“Are you okay?” Skye asks, carrying her over to where the rest of the team was regrouping behind a wall that Skye had crafted  
“I’ll get there, how about you? Your nose is bleeding and I have yet to see you take any hits. You’re pushing yourself too hard again.” Jemma scolds.  
“Well, yes, but only because you were about to be killed.” Skye wipes the blood from off of her face. “Not something that I’m going to apologize for.” as she speaks, the rubble around them begins to lift off of the ground, seemingly of its own volition.  
“What are you doing?” Loki asks, a measure of panic entering his voice. He seemed to be realizing that he had vastly underestimated the young woman, and the lengths that she would go to to defend the people that she loved, her friends.  
“You hurt someone that I love a lot. I want you to get your just rewards so you aren’t about to be going anywhere until your brother gets here to take care of your sorry ass.” Suddenly every spare part around them began to rush through the air towards the god, all crashing into him at once, encapsulating him behind a thick wall of rack, metal and even a few cars. His screams were muffled but still quite audible. Skye dusts off her hands, clapping them together with a sense of satisfaction.  
“Well, that ought to hold him.” Skye mutters, unaware of the fact that she was swaying on her feet as Loki raged from within his prison, flashes of his power leaking through as a tornado lands a couple of yards away out of nowhere. It all just becomes too much for her and Skye sits down, hard.  
“Are you the little inhuman who bested my brother?” the son of Odin asks, towering over her.  
“Yeah, that’s me. she extends her hand out for him to help her up. “Daisy Johnson, or Quake, or Skye, or Mary Sue Poots. I’ve had a lot of names. Take your pick.”  
“I too boast many names and titles. As the god of thunder I shall call thee Skye.” he proclaims as though it were a big deal.  
“Your brother is over there. You’ll be able to hear him before you can see him. I don’t think that I have squashed him too much.” thor helps her to her feet as she talks and a wave of his power washes over her, making her ache a little bit less and giving her a little bit more strength. Skye felt warm all over, and not so much like she was going to fall over again.  
“The way he has been behaving lately, you might should have squashed him a bit more, though I am not sure that your fragile Midgardian’s body could have taken it.” Thor comments, patting Skye’s shoulder. The rest of the team races over, Jemma immediately checking Skye over for any injuries. “Phil, son of Coul! It is quite a pleasant feeling to see the top of your shiny head again! And without it being on the top of my brother’s pointy staff either!” he cheers. “You have done well training this new age of heroes.” he compliments his friend.  
“Thank you, these are my friends. You’ve met Quake, and this is Dr. Jemma Simmons, Dr. Leopold Fitz, Mack, Hunter, and Mockingbird. The Cavalry is probably still around here looking for a fight. She’ll be the one busting all of the heads open while looking like she has yet to actually break a sweat.” Coulson introduces them all, some members of the team still acting pretty chill while Fitz looked so excited that he might actually wet himself.  
“It’s an honor, sir.” Jemma says, shaking Thor’s hand and feeling that same warm sensation that healed and replenished, just like Dr. Simmons had seen that Skye had before going back to Skye, checking some readings on one of the gauntlets on the battlesuit.  
“You fuss over me too much.” Quake complains.  
“The girl is a warrior, Dr. Simmons, but you were right in that she overextended yourself, she was on the verge when I came to her. However, this will not help the stubbornness. I have replaced much of her lost energies.” Thor scolds them both. “You will be of no use to anyone if you kill yourself trying to save everyone.” he advises Skye gently.  
“Yes, sir.”  
“And, young doctor, you should know that from what I have observed , there is nothing that you can do to stop her from trying to save you. She loves you too much for that.”  
“Love me?” Jemma asks, looking confused.  
“She as much as said it aloud earlier, during her battle with my brother. It’s rather obvious anyway.”  
Skye choked on the water that Bobbi had given her at Thor’s words. She had most definitely not been expecting to be outed like that, especially not by one of the Avengers. Her face went red and she couldn’t help but to wonder if anyone would believe a fake faint just to get out of it. She’s looking around for an escape route when she sees HYDRA agents swarming towards them. Thor catches her eye as they leap to defend the group.  
“Avengers Assemble!” he shouts as Skye goes into Quake mode, the ground beneath the approaching army beginning to tremble, making them run unto one another and the SUV’s crash. Whatever vein in her nose that had been bleeding before cracked open again as Quake struggled to keep Loki restrained, continue causing trouble for the HYDRA agents, and keep the bullets from hitting her friends.  
“How long can you keep this up?” Jemma asks.  
“The next ten minutes.” is all Skye can handle before she feels as though her brain might burn up.  
“Captain America just got here.” Jemma tells her as Skye sits, clenching her eyes shut to remain focused. “The Hulk is tossing those agents you messed with through the air like they aren’t anything but action figures. Black Widow is fighting back to back to back with May and Mockingbird, Mack and Fitz are fixing something on Iron Man’s suit, looking like they might pass out. Leave everything else alone and just focus on Loki. Thor is heading this way to take him away.” Jemma can tell when Skye has let go of the HYDRA agents because bullets start to arise by her head and Skye starts to breathe more easily, before moving her own body to guard Jemma’s.  
“You love me?” she asks.  
“This is not the time.” Quake answers.  
“It’s a good enough time for me.” Jemma says in that, ‘you have no choice in the matter.’ tone of hers.  
“Yes I do. I have for a while now. Can we drop it?” Skye opens up her bloodshot eyes, her entire world dyed red.  
“Thor’s here, let it all go. You’re okay, my love. It’s all okay.” Jemma reassures her.   
“I’m going to go join the fray now.” Skye answers in relief, struggling to her feet. “I’ll cover you until you get to relative safety. She ushers Jemma into Stark tower, the Avenger’s headquarters.  
“Skye you can’t handle anymore. Don’t go.” Jemma begs. “There is no shame in hiding. If only for a little while.”  
“I have to. They need me.” Skye answers, and Jemma had known that her answer would be something like that.  
“Fine, then. But first…” Jemma hops up onto her tiptoes and pulls Skye in for a searing kiss.  
“Good luck. Come back to me.”  
“Always.”


	2. Sharing a Hammock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye's having a meltdown a little bit

“Skye, why won’t you look at me?”Jemma asks, sitting down beside of her legs where she was stretched out on the hammock outside of their safehouse.  
“I’ve looked at you.” Skye protests, though her face is turned away.  
“Not in the face. You haven’t once looked me in the eyes.” Jemma corrects her. “And I want to know why.”  
“Looking at you means that you’re actually here.” Skye mutters, turning on her side to look at Jemma full in the face.  
“Is having me here really that bad? What changed, while you were gone that you don’t want me around anymore?” Jemma asks sadly, her big hazel eyes round and pained.  
“No, no, it’s nothing like that. I love having you around, it’s just hard. Everything is just so hard right now.” Skye groans leaning back into the hammock again, massaging her eyes with the heels of her hands.  
“What can I do for you? How can I make things less hard for you?” Jemma asks, lying back against Skye, her own face turned away from the younger girl’s.  
“There’s nothing that you can do. You can’t help the fact that I was stupid enough to fall in love with you.” Skye murmurs, looking up at the fluffy white clouds floating above their heads.  
“That’s what this is all about? It’s all just because you’re in love with me?” Simmons asks, a tint of laughter in her voice.  
“Uhm, yeah. That’s what I just said.” Skye replies, confused by Jemma’s tone.  
“That’s a ridiculous reason to ignore me.” Jemma shakes her head in astonishment.  
“Why is that? You were disturbed by my abnormality. You would never, you could never love someone who’s inhuman, and that is what I am Simmons. That’s who I am.” Skye protests, her voice raising. out of confusion and frustration., but never out of anger. SHe could understand why Jemma thought the way that she was convinced that Jemma thought. Skye wasn’t even sure that she was able to love herself yet.  
“Skye, Daisy, Mary, Quake, it’s a stupid and ridiculous reason. I can and will love you no matter who or what you are, just so long as you are still the woman that I fell in love with. It’s a stupid and ridiculous reason because I still love you.” Jemma laughs before kissing Skye, nearly tipping them out of the hammock.


	3. Time Loop

“So, explain the thingy to me again?” Skye asks, sitting on one of the steel laboratory countertops as Jemma tinkered with a device on a pendant style necklace.  
“Fitz and I set it up on a time loop with some genius bits of genius. Whenever you let out your power when you don’t mean to, this will set you back a little bit in time so that it will be as though you hadn’t.” Jemma does her absolute best to put it all into terms that Skye would understand.  
“Okay, I give up. I trust you. Lay her on me.” Skye says with a roll of her eyes.  
“You can wear it under your shirt if you want to.” Jemma suggests as she slides the pendant onto a chain and loops it around Skye’s neck, brushing long hair out of the way. She pulls off her goggles and gloves so that she can see Skye’s breath hitch when their skin touches. She can’t help but to smile a little bit. Jemma steps around Skye so that she can see the pendant against Skye’s shirt. She scoots in closer, not even a foot away, to take a look at it. She jumps when she sees Skye, with an incredibly serious look on her face, tuck a lock of hair loose hair behind her ear. Jemma raises up onto her tiptoes and looks into Skye’s brown eyes, one hand on her shoulder and the other on the time pendant. Skye leans forward and kisses Jemma softly, the way she has thought about doing so for years and Simmons doesn’t want it to ever end. She remembers what it is that her hand is on, and presses the manual button in the center. Suddenly, Skye is just leaning in again, and Jemma is still smiling into the kiss. She giggles and Skye pulls away, prompting Jemma to hit the button again.  
“You stop that.” Skye scolds and kisses Jemma again, anyway, knowing that that is what the doctor wanted. Skye’s arms wrapped around Jemma’s waist and dragged her in so that her entire front was pressed to Skye’s, setting both of their bodies on fire. Jemma’s hands tangle themselves into Skye’ long hair, pulling every now and then while her mind clears of anything and everything else but Skye’s tongue against her own.  
Skye’s hands burn against Jemma’s bare sides as they slide up, pulling off her lab coat and blouse. It’s at that one very unfortunate moment that Fitz enters the lab. Her eyes going wide and her fingers feeling thick and clumsy, Jemma grabs for the pendant and smacks the button. Just as soon as they are back where they had begun, Jemma drags Skye into her bedroom and they begin to finish what they had started.


	4. Final

“Jemma, I am so sorry but I have to go.” Skye cups the back of Jemma’s neck and rests their foreheads together.  
“I know you do, and I love you for it. Just promise me that you will stay safe, okay?” Jemma asks.  
“I love you, too.” Skye pulls her in and kisses her hard. “We never know If I will come back. This fight is no different I could die and I could not. This time, there is just a whole lot more at stake. However, I swear that I will do everything within my power to come back to you. “ she kisses Jemma again.  
“Cut the cheese, Quake and come on! We’ve got aliens to smush!” yells a voice from mid-air.  
“Shut up, Stark!” Skye yells back.  
“You just told Iron Man to shut up.”  
“He knows that I could destroy his suit with a snap of my fingers.”  
“Still though, one final kiss before you go kill yourself to save our lives?”  
“Always.”


	5. Truth Or Dare

“Truth.” says Skye, not willing to remove any more of her clothing. She was down to her bra and boy-shorts style underwear already.  
“What’s your last name?” Fitz asked, a question that everyone at their school had been asking themselves since the new girl had transferred in at the beginning of the school year. He and his little friend group had invited her purely for the purpose of finding out more about the mysterious stranger.  
“Don’t have one.” she answers, feeling a lot more sober suddenly.  
“What? Why?” asks Bobbi.  
“I’ve already answered the question. I’m only required the one truth, am I right?” Skye asks, a little bit irritated by the prying. “Fitz, truth or dare?”  
“Dare.”   
“Seven minutes in heaven, with… Mack.” she points, causing a mass lifting of eyebrows.  
“You, are an absolute gift, Skye.” Hunter says with a low whistle.  
“Yeah, and if you had wanted to know more about me, all that you had to do was ask.” she grumbles, knocking back a shot of whipped cream flavored vodka.  
“I’m sorry, I told them that it was a bad idea.” Jemma says, she had been oddly quiet all night.  
“It really was.” Skye growls. Now, Fitz and Mack were back, red-faced and embarrassed.  
“Okay, since I got dragged into that one,” Mack starts with a friendly glare at Skye. “I declare it my turn. Skye, Simmons, , it’s your turn in the closet.” Jemma’s eyes go as wide as saucers, she had really thought that she had hid her crush well, literally everyone knew about Mack, and Fitz, but this was just cruel.  
Skye snorts her derision even as her heart rate picks up in her chest. She stands and offers a hand to jemma and guides her along.  
“Again, I am so sorry about the other going all Spanish Inquisition on you and we really don’t have to do anything in…” Jemma rambles before Skye shuts her up by putting their mouths together and thoroughly distracting Jemma’s wandering mind at first, she is so surprised that she just stands there, but she recovers fast and pushes Skye against the door. the little nerd is a lot stronger than the new girl had expected.  
When time is up, Skye just stands and stares.   
“The next time that you want to know something about me, or do that again, just call.” Skye pulls out a Sharpie and scrawls her number across the inside of Jemma’s forearm. The younger girl grins wickedly and follows Jemma out of the closet.


	6. Stuck Together

“You must be really and truly out of your mind.” Skye complains.  
“Nope. I’m pretty sure that this was a rather brilliant move on my part, as per usual.” Jemma responds with a shrug.  
“What are we supposed to do when one of us has to go to the bathroom?” Skye asks pointedly.  
“Oh, you might have caught me on that one. Still, there isn’t anything that we can do about it now. You’re not going on that mission because you aren’t going to go anywhere that I’m not.” Jemma says triumphantly.  
“Are you seriously taking advantage of the fact that I don’t want to do anything that would put you in danger?” Skye asks in astonishment.  
“Yep. Aren’t I smart?” Jemma says with a smirk.  
“You’re cruel and mean. I just want to protect my other friends and family, and you are using my unwillingness to put you in danger against me. Not cool, bro.” Skye pouts.  
“In this instance, I am doing my best to protect you, babe. It’s my turn.” Jemma tries to explain. She is pretty sure that it isn’t going to help.  
“You’ve been hurt. That makes you vulnerable. No missions.” Jemma says strictly. “You might as well try to enjoy it.”  
Skye raises one eyebrow and smirks, using her un-cuffed hand to cup Jemma’s jawline and her hips to press the smaller woman into the wall, pinning her there. Her cuffed hand, balls Jemma’s blouse up into her hand, pulling her closer so that they were pressed completely into one another. They couldn’t get any closer to one another if they had tried. Jemma’s un-cuffed hand grabs the front of Skye’s jeans, right over the button, to hold herself against her. she laughs a little when Skye nips her ear playfully, and unsnaps the button.


	7. Secret Relationship

“Jemma, come back to bed and just go to sleep.” Skye complains, making grabby hands tiredly from her bunk.  
“You know that I have to go back to my room, love. Don’t make this any harder on me than it already is.” Dr. Simmons says from the doorway.  
“Well, yeah, but I also love my cuddles and you know it. Now, come here, just for a little bit.” Skye gives Jemma her most charming grin and even in the dark it still works.   
“Yes, Skye the Inhuman cold-blooded killer, is basically a childish teddy bear whose weaknesses are neck kisses and cuddles. Thank you for asking.” Simmons teases.  
“Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone. You never know, maybe they have special practices and training sessions on spooning, how would you know?” Skye asks, wrapping herself around the scientist and pulling her close.  
“Oh, no, we all know that I am the best at this. No competition.” Simmons teases, kissing Skye’s collarbone.  
“We are going to have to tell them at some point.” Skye reminds her.  
“I know. Not today, though. We don’t have to tell them today.” Jemma sighs into Skye’s arm.  
“We don’t have to tell them until we are ready. Everything will be fine.” Skye murmurs as she falls asleep.


	8. Birthday Scavenger Hunt

Jemma Simmons woke up to a note on the pillow beside of her instead of Daisy. She was simultaneously nervous and excited. It was her birthday and rumor had it that her girlfriend of four years had spent days setting up a scavenger hunt for her.  
Good morning my love,   
I wish that I could be there with you as you wake up, but alas I am needed on a mission. So, until I get back, I hope that this will keep you entertained. A prize awaits you at the end. Do you remember when the two of us first met? I do.  
All of my love,   
Daisy Johnson.  
Jemma and Daisy had first met in the lab back before all of the shit had hit the fan. She had been called Skye then and everything had been very different. Skye had not know a single thing about her past back then either. She had only thought of herself as an orphan who was incredibly good with computers, not as an inhuman, future superhero, secret agent. I was incredible to think of how far they had come, especially how far that they had come together as a couple. It warmed her heart a little bit. She headed off and into the Bus airplane, where they had lived off and on for a few years back in the day. On the table in her old lab was a bouquet of a dozen red roses, and another note.  
Hey there Jems,   
Good job, but that one was an easy one and you know it. Then again it’s your birthday and I don’t want to make you work too hard, now do I? Your next clues is in the same spot as where we kissed for the first time.  
All of my love,  
Daisy Johnson.  
Jemma grins and runs up the stairs to the living room of the Bus. Another note and a teddy bear sat on the couch. She sat down with her bear and her flowers to read the next note. She could remember how hard her heart had been beating when Daisy had begun to lean in towards her. Before that point she had had no idea that Daisy had felt the same way about her.  
Another point for Dr.Simmons!  
Your prize awaits you in the place that I first realized that I loved you. You know that I figure out things under rough circumstances so you might want to think of something that scared me.  
All of my love,  
Daisy Johnson.  
Jemma though long and hard about this one. She could easily remember when Daisy had first thold her that she loved her, but she couldn’t think of when the younger woman might have realized the same thing. The most scared that she had ever seen Daisy be was when she had thought that Jemma was going to die, however this had happened more than once, a common hazard of the job. She took a moment to think of one specific incident that had scared the snot out of Daisy. I all clicked together for her then, and she picked up her notes, her bear, and her flowers to go and find the storage room where her life had changed forever. She didn’t feel so much like running to get to the end of the hunt anymore, not now that she knew where it ended. She couldn’t think of a prize worth that. It was then that Jemma realized that she was wrong. She had to have been wrong, because Skye, and she was SKye back then, was the most scared, not of losing jemma, but of hurting Jemma herself.  
The doctor turned on her heel and ran back into the Bus and down the stairs, down a lot of stairs really. She ran down into the prison of the Bus where Skye had locked herself up, and even shot herself, when her powers had gone out of control. And sitting on the bench where she had slept then, was Daisy, looking bright eyed and bushy talked despite the cut on her forehead bleeding into her eyes. A grin lit up her face when she saw Jemma enter the room.  
“I have loved you enough to die over since that day that you jumped out of the plane to save all of our lives, and I feel that we have proved over and over again that we will love one another to the ends of the Earth and back. Now, before I bleed out in here, will you please say that you will marry me?” Daisy asks, wincing as she kneels down and holds a ring aloft.  
“Are you crazy? Why would you come down here to propose to me when you have been shot?!” Jemma scolds her.  
“It’s not like I haven’t been shot before, Jemma. Is that a yes or a no?” Daisy rolls her eyes as she struggles up to her feet.  
“Of course I’ll marry you, especially after you have gone to so much effort and have bled all over me again.” Jemma kisses er once. “Let me see your booboo so that you won’t die before our wedding.”   
“I’m too stubborn to die, you know that.” Daisy laughs.  
“The only reason that she’s hurt is because she rushed the job because she wanted to beat you to the final note. Idiot nearly got us all killed.” Coulson complains, appearing from behind a corner like a ghost. He passes by her and affectionately smacks the back of her head.  
“Hey now, be gentle, she’s hurt.” Jemma scolds.  
“I need to be around to get married, you know.” Daisy groans.  
“Oh my good word, we’re going to be getting married.” Jemma says as it all dawns on her, her eyes going wide as she also starts to get a little bit nervous. “What have I gotten myself into?” Daisy’s strangled and pained laugh echoes around her as the group helps her up the stairs.


	9. Kissing in Private

“You really need to calm down, babe. We live on an airplane with a lot of other people. It’s only natural that we won’t be able to get a lot of alone time.” Dr. Jemma Simmons tells her girlfriend Daisy Johnson who was still pacing the small amount of space between the door and the bed.  
“You would think that those idiots would have learned to take a hint by now.” she grumbles, running her hand through her wavy shoulder length hair.  
“And now that we have our privacy, you want to waste it with the pacing and the complaining?” Jemma asks, a knowing smirk on her face.  
“Most definitely not.” Daisy takes a running jump onto the bed and tackle hugs Jemma, pushing her down and onto the bed. “Mwah!” she says loudly as she kisses her genius girlfriend’s cheek.  
“You do know that when we are kissing in private, you don’t have to be completely ridiculous all of the time, right?” Jemma teases, tucking a lock of hair behind Daisy’s ear from the bottom of the heap.  
“But you think that I’m cute when I’m being ridiculous.” Daisy kisses Jemma’s other cheek, knocking the strand of hair loose again, prompting an eyeroll from the older woman.  
“I think that you’re cute all of the time.” Jemma laughs and rolls Daisy over, tickling her ribcage before kissing her again for real.


	10. Supernaturally Pregnant

“Hey, Jems…” I begin, finally putting into words what I have been thinking for the past few months. “Have you ever considered what would happen if we were to just up and quit one day?” I ask, almost choking on my words  
“Well, a little bit, but I have always felt very strongly about what it is that I, or, we do.” Jemma says thoughtfully. “ I love my work and I know that you do too.”  
“What if you could keep doing your science and stuff, just not here. Like in a real laboratory. A lab that didn’t also fly. No more missions. No more field work. No more being shot at or being hung off of buildings or superpowers and Norse gods and goddesses or being taken away by a freaking rock.” Skye says as she lays down and out on a steel table top, the coolness soothing her burning skin. She seemed to always feel as though she were overheating lately.  
“Daisy, honey, are you okay? You’re flushed and talking strangely. You aren’t seeming much like yourself.” Jemma peels off her gloves and take lab coat swiftly crosses the room and take Skye’s temperature with her hand. Looking alarmed, she kisses Skye’s forehead and jumps back. Skye winces at Jemma’s words.  
“Jem, I’m fine, really. I’m just stressed. Trust me.” Skye pushes herself up with a desperate look in her eyes.  
“Not buying it, love.” Jemma chuckles, looking rather freaked out. She digs around in a box, grabs out a scanner, and pushes several buttons.  
-Identifying illness.- it beeps out in a robotic monotone.  
Skye’s face falls as she places a hand on her stomach and lays back down on the table. Jemma holds the scanner a good foor above the top of Skye’s head and slowly moves it down to the soles of her feet, she tilts away from Jemma, no longer able to keep looking at her.  
“I wanted to tell you myself. If you would have let me keep going. I was getting there.” Skye mumbles.  
-Diagnosis: Pregnant.- the machine announces on Skye’s behalf.  
“Would you like to explain to me what is going on, oh wife of mine?” Jemma asks, really well and truly shaken, right down to her core.  
“I noticed two weeks ago that I am probably two or three months late on my period. You were out and about, so I went to Fitz about it. We both know that i would never cheat on you so I was freaking the hell out. It is physically impossible for me to be pregnant. I haven’t had sex with anyone but you in years. I went back in and watched the security footage of our bedroom that matched up with the timeline. ` Now, I don’t remember any of this at all, but this is the tape of that night.” Skye says her voice pained, and worried, and somewhere very deep down, fiercely defensive, and protective, and loving.”   
Jemma, now very confuse, accepts Skye’s cellphone form her and watches as she and her wife lay side by side, asleep. As she watches, Skye unfurls herself from around Jemma, climbs out of the bed and stands, arms outstretched. Jemma doesn’t understand how she had managed to miss the event as Skye, still asleep, begins to glow, from the inside out. It shown off of her, everywhere, enough to light up the entire room, the light settles and centers on Skye’s abdomen, whooshing around and into her again. Skye’s sleeping body climbs back into the bed and curls back around Jemma, exactly where she had been.  
Her eyes widen and she nearly drops the phone out of shock. She turns to stare at Skye in awe, pressing a hand to her stomach. The skin underneath begins to glow the same shade of yellow gold that had been in the video. Jemma jumps back and the glow immediately fades. Skye smiles at her and her wife’s clear eyes begin to sparkle with a childlike wonder. Jemma pushes up Skye’s shirt and lays her hand flat out against the skin, her whole abdomen glows and pulses and Skye finally feels as though her entire body isn’t a raging fire.  
“That, certainly didn’t happen with Leo. Jemma, I do believe that you have gotten me pregnant.” Skye is practically glowing on her own then, a grin pulling so hard at her cheeks that it almost hurt her.  
“That’s my baby?” Jemma asks, pointing at her wife’s stomach.  
“Yes, that is what I’m saying. I’m Inhuman, Jem. This could possibly be the normal for people like me.” Skye says with a dismissive shrug.  
“Is that why you were talking about possibly wanting to leave SHIELD as an agent?” Jemma asks, understanding dawning on her.  
“I would stay for the rest of my life if I could, doing this until someone takes me out, if it weren’t for this little one, but I am not willing to take that risk. I didn’t get to grow up with parents and I swear that my child isn’t going to go through that.” Skye promises, looking down at her stomach and her eyes filled with tears.  
“Hey now, I love you and I already love this baby.” Jemma reassures her and wraps her arms around Skye’s waist, standing between her legs, head against her chest.  
“That’s what I was hoping you would say.” Skye sighs contentedly and kisses the top of Jemma’s head.


	11. Misunderstanding

“Hey, Jemma? Do you want free ice cream?” Skye asks after a lovely dinner on their weekly date night, a mischievous glint glittering in her eyes.  
“Always… wait, are you about to do something illegal or bad?” Jemma asks nervously as Skye gets out of her seat and approaches her like Jemma was a scared cat that might run away.  
“That sort of depends on how you look at it.” Skye’s grin widens and she drops to one knee, pure laughter sparkling in her eyes as she clears her throat dramatically.  
“Jemma Simmons, you are the single most brilliant mind that I have ever met, and I fear that sometimes that is all that people will see of you. I swear that, if you marry me, I won’t ever miss a thing. Dr. Simmons is...please do me the great honor of being my wife?” Skye asks in a loud voice, but makes it clear that Jemma is the only person in the room that she is speaking to.  
“Wait...what?” Jemma’s eyes go very wide, very quickly, trying hard to keep up what is going on around her.  
“This is the part where you say yes, darling.” Skye whispers, suddenly acutely aware of all of the eyes on her.  
“Oh, of course I will.” Jemma answers and Skye pops up with a smile again, grabs Jemma by the waist, and swings her around in circles, right there in the middle of the restaurant. The tension breaks and everybody in the room explodes with applause.  
“And...cue the free food.” Skye whispers into her ear before kissing the base of her neck and then her lips, full in view of everybody else to the sound of even more applause. When Skye lets her go. Jemma sits and just stares at the ring on her finger. She finally recognizes that it is plastic and fake...just like the proposal itself. Surprised, her heart falls, and her smile. Yes, she had been shocked, but she had also been happy to have had Skye propose to her.  
“It’s an old trick that Miles and I used to use to con ourselves into some free food. Almost always worked. I thought that it would be cool and fun to give you a taste of the full Skye experience.” she says amiably as a waiter brings them both icecreams and a piece of cake.  
“Congratulations.” she says. It’s incredibly obvious that she doesn’t mean it, but Skye pretends to rapturous levels of enthusiasm anyway. Jemma tries to match it, but can’t. She was really sort of disappointed that Skye hadn’t actually been proposing to her and she was really rather surprised at herself for feeling that way.  
Over the next couple of months, Jemma tried really hard to put the incident out of her mind. It didn’t work. It kept niggling in the back of Jemma’s mind and she just couldn’t shake it. Those feelings, of course, leaked into her relationship with Skye and the younger girl had no idea what was going on with her. All she knew was that Jemma was upset and she kept getting brushed off whenever she would ask what was wrong or what was going on with her. It was confusing and hard and sad until one day she was folding the laundry and she found that stupid plastic ring still riding around in Jemma’s jacket pocket.  
“OOOooohh.” she whistled to herself and just locked herself in the bathroom to think alone for a while. The next week she went shopping out with Fitz, called Jemma’s parents in England, bought plane tickets, and reserved a private room at the Olive Garden.  
“Jemma, are you ready?!” Skye asks, suddenly incredibly nervous. Her palms were sweating and she was pretty sure that she could feel her pulse in her face.  
“Coming!” Jemma yells, snapping her earrings into place. Skye had suddenly been acting so odd and flighty and weird and that in turn was making Jemma antsy as well. The younger woman had even requested that they both dress up special for the night. She steps out of their bedroom to join Skye and stops short, jerking them to a stop.  
“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?!“ she launches herself into her parents’ arms.  
“Skye invited us. She wanted surprise you.” Jemma’s mother answers. “Your young lady, has worked very hard to set all of this up."   
"You have just seemed so off lately and I thought that maybe they could help you out more than I could. I mean, I am your girlfriend and all but there are just some things that you can't talk to me about and I get that." Skye looks sheepish, shifting from one foot to the other, not making eye contact with her.  
"I love you." Jemma hugs her tightly, barely able to process all of the things and emotions and thoughts that were running through her mind and heart at the moment "this is the actual sweetest and most thoughtful and considerate thing. I can't believe you." She cups Skye's very surprised face in one hand and runs her thumb across Skye's cheek.  
"Well, uh, dinner?" Jemma’s dad suggests, seemingly uncomfortable with the expressions of so many feelings. He couldn’t help how incredibly British her was in the face of such things.  
“Yeah, let’s go.” Skye answers with a soft smile, taking Jemma’s hand after wiping off her own on her jeans.  
When the meal was over, Skye looks nervously at Jemma and glances over at her parents, suddenly nervous that she might actually throw up. Slowly, she slides the little blue box out of her pocket and pushes herself up and out of her seat.  
“A little while ago, I proposed to you in this exact spot all because I wanted to play a joke and get free ice cream. I thought that it was something funny from my past and didn’t take your feelings into consideration, and for that, I’m sorry. However, I am not sorry that it put rings into our minds, because as you can see, I kind of already asked your mum and dad for permission. Jemma, we are good together and you wouldn’t believe how good you are for me. I love you more than all of the ice cream in the world. With you around I feel like I could take on the world. For real this time, Dr. Jemma Simmons, will you marry me?” Skye asks, her voice soft and her eyes not leaving Jemma’s for a single second.  
Once again the doctor stands there completely silent and wide-eyed, her mind having gone completely blank. She couldn’t even have remembered her own name if someone had asked her. She wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad or angry. Jemma could only hear Skye’s words floating through her mind over and over again on repeat.  
“Jemma, this is the part where you say yes, of course, Skye. Of course, I’ll marry you.“ Jemma’s mother reminds her.  
“I…” Jemma starts, suddenly kind of dizzy. “Are you stupid? Of course I’m going to marry you!” she finally says, collapsing to the floor and hugging Skye, crying into her shoulder.


	12. Historical AU

Skye ran, her feet pounding hard asphalt with the kind of force that echoes throughout her entire body. Up her legs and out in waves like ripples in a pond. Fear coursed through her veins making every little thing come alive, burning away the thoughts that don’t matter and keeping her alert, and the only thing keeping her alive. Shots ring through the blackness of the night, whizzing by her head. If she were to make it through all of this she wasn’t sure that she would need a haircut after her unwanted trim after having had some of her hair shot off.  
It seems as though she has stopped paying close enough attention to the ground in front of her, and her path of travel is interrupted by a fire hydrant. Naturally, she trips and falls over it. This is the end of it for me, she knows that now. She has crossed too many lines and she has jumped over too many boundaries wholeheartedly and with both feet.  
One of the men has caught up to her now, and she scrambles backwards as quickly as she possibly, trying to get herself back up onto her feet again. It’s no use, she’s panicking much too much and she raises her arms to cover her face, as though it were any use as he raises his weapon in her direction, point blank range right at her head, about to put her rather short and rather miserable life to an end. She hears a shout, muffled sounds of general ruckus, and grunts of pain.  
“Not dead.” she mutters to herself, trying to remind herself. “I’m not dead again.” Finally she thinks to glance around and to find out why she hasn’t died yet, why she hasn’t been killed and put to rest finally.  
The three men who had been doing their best to take her out it seemed were in a tussle with a singular woman, and somehow it seemed that she was winning, or at least holding her own incredibly well underneath her circumstances. A glint of silver a few feet away from Skye drew her attention and she rushes to get to it, ignoring the burns and aches of torn skin and stretched muscles protesting every movement. She grabs hold of a small revolver and gives it a quick once over. Carefully she manages to figure out how it is used seeing as how she had never ever before even touch a gun so much. She shakily points it at one of the bad guys who had managed to slip out of the woman rescuer’s grasp. WIth a small wince at the thought of what she was about to do, she pulls the trigger and quickly looks away. The gu reports and she drops back in fear, making herself a smaller tager out of fear of retaliation. She shrinks back into herself covers her ears at the sound of the scream of pain, and find herself waiting to die again.  
“Skye stop that, you’re safe now. I’ve got you.” a careful and kind female voice tells her through the blackness and haze of her thoughts. Hesitantly she lowers her arms and peeks through, brown eyes terrified.  
“How do you know my name? Why am I not dead?” she asks, completely unaware of where she really was or to whom she was speaking. her voice wavers. “Did I kill him?”   
“No darling, that was much too lousy a shot for that. You hit him in the leg. He’s not going to die unless it were to get infected or I got him for what he has apparently done to you. This is the fifties and that is no way to treat a lady.” the woman says in a very British accent, obviously skirting around all of the other questions.  
“You’re safe now.” she promises and Skye chooses that precise moment to faint.

\-----////----

She wakes up later that night in an incredibly lavish living room in a clean nightgown. He has been bathed, changed, and had all of her wounds expertly cleaned, treated and dressed. the woman who rescued her is across the room in the midst of a chess match with her butler. Skye is stunned by the fact that the woman has a butler. She accidentally lets out a groan as she tries to force herself up and into a sitting position against her entire body’s protests.  
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.” the woman says in a familiar tone with a charming grin on her face.  
“Where am I?” Skye asks immediately in response, trying not to let her charm her out of her suspicious nature. The woman’s face falls promptly, clearly having hoped for something else out of her unwitting guest.  
“Howard Stark’s mansion.” she answers, picking up a pitcher of water and pouring Skye a glass. Each and every one of her movements is so incredibly graceful that she almost can’t believe that the woman is truly real..  
“My name is Jemma Simmons, I am an agent of SHIELD and a former operative of the SSR. SHIELD stands for Strategic Homeland…”   
“I know what it stands for. I’m confused not stupid.” Skye interrupts, they had held her captive and stolen several years of her life off of her.  
“Yes, I suppose that you would. I just didn’t know where to begin. I don’t know how much of what is happening to you you truly understand.” Jemma muses, “You seem so very young in the eyes right now. Much younger than you are, while still so much older.”  
“Please don’t make me go back there, please. I’m begging you. Please don’t send me back into that hell hole.” her eyes take on a wide and desperate look.  
“Oh, no, no, no, honey. I’m working from the inside to change these thing.s I helped to found SHIELD with my partner and the great Peggy Carter in Steve Roger’s honor. However the SSR agents who came along over with me were working on Operation Undercut without my knowledge. Skye, you know that you are an Inhuman, right? I would never allow an atrocity like this.” she asks, kneeling down to Skye’s level and looking her in the eyes.  
“Um, I uh…” she stutters, blinded by the intensity in Jemma’s eyes. It is so clear that she believes in what she is saying with such a passion that it steals Skye’s breath away.  
“It’s okay, I already know that it’s true, I uh...read the file that the Reserve had on you. Anyways, the power just comes and rolls off of you in waves.” she continues. In the face of Jemma’s eloquence, Skye felt stupid and clumsy.  
“I found that the SSR was very interested in getting you back, whether you wanted to come or not, so I set out to rescue you.” she adds.  
“I tagged along to make sure that Dr.Simmons didn’t get herself killed.” the butler adds, his Scottish accent thick. He hadn’t spoken at all since Skye had woken up and she had half forgotten that he was there. “My name is Leopold Fitz by the way.”  
“He is Howard’s personal butler and my personal assistant for the time being. He also functions as a very talented bodyguard.” Jemma supplies. “Director Carter and I are sharing him.”

\-----////---- Jemma:  
Skye continued to stare wide eyed at her, a complete deer in the headlights with no clue as to what was going on around her. She looked scared, startled, and rather impressed. Her big brown eyes made Jemma tremble inside and help her even more with whatever she might need.  
“Duh-Dr. Simmons, I might need to warn you that I have yet to achieve full control of my powers. I have full access to them, but once they are being pulled out of me I can’t seem to stop them. I have been told by a few that I have enough power to tear apart the entire planet. I don’t want to risk it. Death first.” Skye says as she squeezes her eyes shut in fear of how Jemma might respond.  
“Why do you keep doing that?”  
“What?”  
“Flinching away from me, it makes me nervous.”  
“Sorry.”  
“Don’t apologize. Just explain yourself.” Jemma instructs in a much kinder tone.  
“Occasionally, you know, when I would give them the wrong answer to a question or an answer that they didn’t like I or I wouldn’t be able to do something I would, sometimes, usually, end up getting my ass very much and thoroughly kicked. It’s just that...that kicked dog instinct is still there. I am very much afraid of my own shadow. I am so scared all of the damn time that I can barely breathe.”  
“Darling, I can’t imagine...I am so so very sorry. You listen to me, now.” Jemma instructs, scrambling to her feet and onto the couch beside of her. SHe wraps an arm around Skye’s shoulders.  
“As long as I am alive and kicking, no one will ever hurt you again, I swear it.” Jemma says and she honestly has absolutely no idea why.  
“I wish that I could believer you.” Skye breathes. The smaller woman’s arms around her had initially made quite anxious, but now she found it to be quite the pleasant sensation. She leaned Into Jemma’s arms and allowed herself to melt into the embrace. Skye can’t quite remember the last time that she had been well and truly relaxed. She hadn’t meant for it to happen but her eyes had begun to leak tears of their own volition, she tried to choke them back and the sound only came out as a mangled sob.  
“Oh, sweetie. It’s all okay. It will all be okay. I promise, I will make sure that everything will stay okay. Fitz, you go organize a guard , okay? I will take care of this.” Jemma gestures to herself and Skye. “And yell if I need you.”   
“Would you like to go to bed now>: Jemma asks, realizing that Skye had stopped crying nearly as much as she been and that she had been peacefully stroking Skye’s hair for a while now.  
“Yes, please. However, I am very scare of being alone. Please, don’t make me be alone.” Skye begs. She hates herself for sounding so weak and pathetic.  
“You won’t ever have to be alone again if you don’t want it.” Jemma says, scared of how truly awful this shaken up version of Skye was. Skye had to have been completely rewritten to have forgotten her very own wife.


	13. Domestic AU

“Hey, Jemma!” Skye yells form the kitchen, packing baby Ben’s bag for his weekend wiht Uncle Grandpa Coulson.  
“Yes, honey?” Jemma responds, dressing Ben.  
“Have you spoken to May, yet? Hunter says that he and Bobbi might be stopping by the park.  
“I thought that they were going to Hawaii for their honeymoon.”  
“Bobbi is banned from the islands. Like...all of them.”  
“Why am I not surprised.” Jemma laughs.  
“That’s exactly what I said.” Skye comes up behind her and wraps her arms around Jemma’s waist and kisses her throat where it meets her collarbone.  
“Hey now, you can wait until we get out there. You are aware that we have totally gone past stereotypical right, my love?” Jemma asks, complete adulation shining out of her eyes.  
“I don’t mind so much, do you?” Skye replies, reaching around Jemma to tickle her baby boy’s tummy.  
“Nay, this will be fun I think.” Jemma says with shrug, passing Ben to Skye and watching her with him. She loved to see the way that she was with Ben. Skye had always been the fun and playful sort of person, but the best part was the look in her eyes It was so clear to Simmons how much Skye loved their baby.  
“Good, I want you to have a good time.” Skye says as she blows a raspberry on Ben’s stomach.   
“That must be the director. I’ll go get it.” Simmons says when the doorbell rings.  
“Okay, be careful.” Skye advises. “Yell if you need me.”  
“We aren’t agents anymore, love. There is no need to tell me to be careful every time that I answer the door.” Jemma says with exasperation.  
“You know why I say that, Jems. Someday someone may come after Ben, or myself. The mere fact that I was capable of bearing a child is miraculous, the fact that my very DNA reacted to your love for me and got me pregnant is ridiculous, and impossible, and amazing. I am surprised that no one has come for us, yet.” Skye gives her the lecture for what feels like the billionth time, letting Coulson in while she talks.  
“I think that it just means that I am very good at what I do.” Jemma teases. “On the other hand, I still have an entire team of my best people all over your samples.”  
“Did I miss something?” the director asks.  
“My wife is paranoid.” Jemma complains as Skye hands the man their son.  
“Just because you are paranoid that doesn’t mean that someone isn’t after you.” Phil Coulson advises.  
“You see? Thanks, DC.” Skye crosses her arms over her chest with a cocky grin.  
“That doesn’t mean that anyone is, either.” he adds, looking at Benjamin instead of either of them, holding the little boy up in the air above his heads talking and cooing at him.  
“Ha!” crows Jemma.  
“I have no proof as of yet that anyone has yet to find out about Ben and neither of you have yet to see him show any signs of Inhuman abilities, right?” the director asks warily.  
“I don’t think he ever will unless something happens to pull it up and awaken it.” Skye says, looking pissy still yet.  
“His DNA still looks completely human. If it ever changes we will tell you immediately.” Simmons promises, even though her fingers are crossed behind her back.  
“But like I said before, I don’t think it ever will, and if he does, I doubt that he would be that powerful. I’m half-Inhuman, so he’s only one-fourth unless Jemma has been hiding something form me.” Skye says flippantly. “I will always be ready to say anything to remind you keep you safe. I love you and I would be crushed, truly crushed if anything were to ever happen to you.” Skye turns to look at her.  
“I am so definitely going to side with the Skyester on this one. I’m sorry, Jemma. You know I love you, honey, but I too regularly worry about your safety, as a family.” Coulson confesses.  
“Well, when she puts it that way…” Simmons says with a playful scowl.  
“How do you manage to turn that entire thing to make yourself look like such a great person all of the time?” Jemma complains.  
“It’s part of just being me, I guess.” Skye teases in reply. Jemma kisses Skye’s cheek and then Ben’s. “Thank you for doing this.” she tells Coulson.  
“Oh, I was looking forward to this, it’s going to be great! Right buddy?” he asks Ben. Jemma and Skye very much think that it will be okay when their little boy grins and squishes Coulson’s face.   
“Okay, we’ll be back soon, I promise.” Skye promises.  
“Love you.” Jemma adds.  
By the time that they are ten minutes down the road, Skye wants to go home.  
“But what if he misses me? What if HYDRA attacks? I want my baby back!” she protests.  
“Baby, can you please just chill? This was what you wanted to do for the weekend. You suggested it and I think that you need to go through with it.” Jemma advises.  
“Fine, as usual, you are correct.” Skye admits.  
“That is so what you get when you are married to a genius.” Jemma laughs.  
“Why do you never ever bring up the fact that I too, am a genius?” Skye asks.  
“Wait a second, are you an actual genius? Have you been tested? What’s your IQ? How did I not know this?” Jemma asks.  
“I hacked SHIELD...twice, I would say that I’m an actual genius, wouldn’t you?” Skye asks, quirking one eyebrow.  
“I knew that, I just didn’t quite do that thing where you don’t process it.” Jemma answers. “So, how great are you?”  
“Jemma, how serious of a hacker are you?” Skye asks.  
“I don’t think that I’ve tried before…”Jemma says thoughtfully.  
“You see? You don’t know how hard it is because you have never tried. It is so very much harder than you could ever possibly think. What did you think that I was doing when I used to spend my time freaking out over my computer, trying to save the world?” Skye asks, still feeling mildly insulted.  
“I had usually gone back into my lab by that part my love.” Jemma says feeling rather uncomfortable. “I truly have no idea as to how I might have managed to miss all of that.” She watches as Skye rolls out their bedrolls, and blows up their air mattress, plugging the pump into the car and hooking it all up.  
“Did you ever wonder why no one ever knows my name? Did you ever wonder why we have never had to pay for internet or cable or anything like that?”  
“Well...no.” she says as she lays down.  
“Would you think that NASA would be hard to hack into?” Skye asks with innocent baby child eyes.  
“Yeah, definitely.” Simmons nods emphatically.  
“I did that one when I was fifteen from my school computer during lunch break. Watch me now, hot stuff.” Skye laughs. “I have spent loads of my time watching you do fun things in your laboratories with dead aliens and things. For once I want you to see me work, and be impressed. Skye flops down onto the bed, shooting a tiny and tired Jemma up into the air.


	14. Reunion AU

“Are you sure that this will work?” Daisy asks for probably the tenth time since Fitz had begun to set up his device around the constantly shifting stone.  
“Again, I say that I make no promises.” the little Scottish genius says in a clear growl. “This will either save her or blow up the entire base, so let’s hope that it works.” Daisy resumes her pacing, gnawing on her fingernail while she watches Fitz work.  
“Can’t you just go somewhere until we need you?” he asks, aggravation from being watched seeping through.  
“I’m your guard for the next two shifts. I’m not going to go anywhere that Jemma isn’t so long as you are working. I’m also apparently much too volatile for missions or some shit. They aren’t letting me out for a while. You blow up one freaking building on accident and you aren’t allowed to leave without gloves.” Daisy rages.  
“The building is vibrating, Quake. Stop quaking.” Fitz says calmly. To be completely honest, he understood where his friend was coming from. Without Jemma around they were both feeling as though they were missing a key piece of themselves. Daisy, the part to keep her grounded and calm; Fitz, he felt like on of his arms had suddenly gone missing. Maybe even a whole half. However, it had had the worst effect on Daisy whose precious little control on her powers began to slip.  
“Right, sorry.” she stopped her pacing, closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply.  
“Better.” Fitz said and linked his two final connections.  
“Are we ready?” she asks, looking excited and wary all at once.  
“I do believe that we are.” he answers, nervous anticipation lighting up his face. “Do your thing with the things.” he instructs.  
Daisy takes a seat on the floor and closes her eyes again, breathing deeply before pressing her palms to the floor and concentrating. The key to Fitz’s device working was Daisy, and her ability to manipulate the vibrations that she caused. SHe had to keep them on the exact wavelength that FItz was dictating aloud to her, so that he could see, through his little monitor thingy, Jemma alive and well within the rock. where the vibrations bounced off of her. On his command Daisy would stop the vibrations while Simmons was still in limbo, leap forward as the rock was still goopy, and yank her out while Fitz’s machine did something or other to allow her to do that safely. This was why it had to be Daisy.   
“Now!” Fitz yells to her, and Daisy pops up off the ground faster than he would have thought possible, and instead of reaching in like they had planned and grabbing Dr Simmons, Daisy heedlessly jumps through the stone, shoving them both out upon her exit.  
“Have you completely lost it?! Are you bullshitting me right now?! What in the hell were you thinking?! Oh my freaking God!” Fitz sits down on the floor hard and looks up to see Daisy staring at Dr. emma Simmons who was running her eyes and running her hands through her har and forcing her way to her feet shakily.  
“Skye?” Jemma asks. “What happened? One minute I’m fine and the next you’re tackling me like an American footballer. Where did all of your hair go?” she seems personally affronted by Daisy’s haircut.  
“No one has called me that in a very long time.” she laughs darkly. “May I hug you?”  
Jemma looks around at her foreign surroundings, her eyes going wide as she begins to piece together what she has missed. “You can do much more than that. You just saved my life again, didn’t you?” she rushes into Daisy’s arms, noticing new lines around the corners of the now older, woman’s eyes, new scars, and a new sense of I’ve seen things that would make your toes curl in her eyes. The xenobiologist stands up on her tiptoes as Daisy warily places her arms around Jemma’s waist and kisses her. It takes her a moment but Daisy responds in kind, pulling Jemma almost bodily into the air as tears begin to fall down the heroine’s cheeks.  
“Hey now, I helped too.” Fitz complains about not getting any attention. “I haven’t seen my best friend in two years!”  
“Years?!” Jemma shrieks, pulling away from Daisy, and nearly falls.


	15. Chuck

My name is Jemma Simmons and I accidentally became a computer, or at least I accidentally absorbed one. This is the deal, for the first twenty-six years of my existence I was painfully and tragically normal, all but for my natural affinity for computers. I even made it into Stanford. There, I made an amazing bestfriend. Well, he was amazing to me until he got me expelled. Thanks, Bobbi. A week ago, on my birthday, he sent me an email with a scene form an old video game that we had programmed together, a lot like a riddle. Naturally, I had to solve it. Once I did, a long series of pictures flashed before my eyes.  
Those pictures were all encoded with secrets, government secrets, the scary time. Suddenly, I was the most important woman in the whole wide world. Apparently, my ex-best friend was traitor to the CIA, he had broken into a top secret government building and emailed me the Intersect computer which held all of the combined intelligence of the USA and the CIA. Now, a lot of people wanted to kill me, or torture me for what I know.  
Naturally, the United States government couldn’t allow that so I was assigned two of their very best agents. First of all for me at least, was Agent Skye of the CIA. She was Bobbi’s ex-partner and ex-girlfriend was still feeling the after effects of that betrayal, I could tell. I felt some sort of connection between us, but I couldn’t tell if it was just me or not. On the other hand was the NSA representative, Melinda May, also known as The Cavalry. She was grumpy and didn’t talk much. Mostly, she communicated in grunts. I still think that she likes me, probably, even if just a little bit.  
“Hey Skye, I just flashed on the news and I am starting to think that we might have a problem.” I say into my spy watch looking at the television. hanging in the electronics section of the Buy More.  
“Darling, I’m right behind you.” she says grinning, her brown eyes twinkling. Did I mention that she was absolutely totally and completely gorgeous and awesome and beautiful?  
She leans across the counter and kisses me chastely on the lips. Oh, yeah, and her cover story is as my girlfriend, to mesh herself into my life.  
“What did you need?” she asks and if she doesn’t stop doing that thing with her eyes I swear that I will lose my ability to speak at all.  
“I uh, I flashed on that guy from before of the news, the African presidential type guy? He’s in danger. Some sort of something is going to go down at the orchestra tonight.” I whisper hurriedly.  
“I will run it by the director and May. See what they have to say first. Do you have anything else for me?” Skye asks, flipping her hair flirtily. the smell of her shampoo hits me and I sway on my feet a bit.  
“Pick you up at eight tonight?” I ask just in case.  
“No, I should stop by your place just to show my face there every once in awhile. What should the cover be?”   
“Hitting up the orchestra? If I’m right, that won’t be too far off.” I answer with a shrug as her brows draw together in consideration. Just by the look on her face I can tell that she is considering hundreds of possible problems.  
“What are the Hunter and Mack doing tonight?”  
“All nighters at the hospital.”  
“Fitz?”  
“He’s free.”  
“Go out with him and do something tonight if we find out that something is actually about to happen. this could get ugly.”  
“No! I want to go with you and help. I could flash on something useful.”  
“Jemma, I did this for years before you came along. I promise that I will be just fine.” she says reassuringly before coming around the back and hugging me, realizing that I was not at all reassured.”I love it that you care, though.” she kisses my cheek, and heads off to do spy stuff. I regularly spend my nights wishing that I got to do spy stuff.

Still, I felt something niggling in the back of my mind and it didn’t have ot do with my intense migraine or my weird dreams. I logged onto my work computer and bought two floor tickets for the LAX Orchestra.  
“Fitz!” I yell.  
“Simmons! You bellowed?” he yells back from underneath my desk and pops up. He generally hides whenever my faux girlfriend and my handler come around again. They terrify him ever since he saw them take out twelve baddie bad bad guys all on their own.  
“How do you feel about classical music?” I ask, a slow grin spreading across my face. Finally, I was about to prove myself to be a worthy part of the team.

Skye:   
“Agent May, when was the last time that you heard from Simmons?” I ask, something about our earlier conversation bothering me still yet. Maybe it was the look of mild desperation, the concern or the downright stubborn look in her eyes or the fact that she had gritted her teeth as I walked away and her eyes had gone hard. I knew that look. I knew it well. I was the freaking queen of that look.   
“About two hours ago. You?”  
“Same. So, why is she not at the Buy More?” I asked, worry creeping into my voice.  
“Damn it. Scroll back the feed. When did she...why is she in a freaking ball gown?” May asks.  
“Fitz is in a tuxedo. Oh, God. They’ve gone to the orchestra.”  
“Wow, they actually look really good.”  
“Yeah, I know.” I answer without thinking. It had been my first thought, though not at all about Fitz. Jemma had looked truly radiant.  
“Are they armed?” May asks me as I take a snapshot of the tickets that Fitz is holding in the video.  
“Tranq. guns. you know that Jemma has and probably always will refuse to use a real one.” I wince at that because it’s true. Until she had gotten that ‘upgrade’ on the Intersect she had been an incredibly lousy agent. Now she was better than the Cavalry and I combined. Just so long as she could flash, call up the information out of the computer in her mind.  
“We have to go after her.” I say and turn to register May already in a floor length, sparkly silver ball gown and holding an M16.  
“Of course.” she answers and tosses me my glock and vest.  
“I’d better put my fancies on then, too.” I say with an exhausted sigh. This woman was going to be the death of me.  
“You had better.”

\-----/////-----  
I check the photo on my phone for confirmation of where Jemma was supposed to be sitting. I glance down the rows and realize that she is no longer in her seat, a cold shot of fear runs down her spine.  
“You take care of Simmons. I’ll get Fitz.” May points up to the balcony where you can see my charge arguing with the Secret Servicemen protecting the African president. I take off at a dead run, sidearm already out and ready in my hand. Maybe it had come the time that I came to terms with what I already knew. I had feelings for Jemma, always had, and I had never allowed myself to admit it. And she was just now about to get her tiny self killed. I run up the two flights of stairs as quickly as my legs would possibly take me. Just as I make it to the top, Jemma takes a swing at a man standing right beside of the president.  
His tooth flies out.  
Jemma leaps after it.  
Servicemen jump after Jemma.  
I leap in front of her, aware that I was breaking so many rules. I broke so many protocols in that moment and I didn’t care in the slightest bit.  
“You tell me right this instant what is going on.” I order.  
“Information. Fake tooth. Very bad.” she pants out, breathing heavily, rage in her eyes.  
“There is no such thing!” yells the serviceman in a thick African accent. He grabs her arm and starts to drag her away, her tranquilizer gun long discarded out of reach.  
“Let her go!” I yell in response, rage coloring my voice, jumping forwards, but finding myself getting pulled back by the Cavalry, one calming hand on my shoulder.  
“They’re taking her form here to the psych ward of the CIA. They can release her to us from there.” May tells me and I notice that Fitz is still out and over her shoulder, I hadn’t even considered the young man.  
“What is with him. Finally crossed the line with the flirting?” I ask jokingly, doing my best not to sound as freaked out about it all and totally scared as I actually am. I have literally snuck in undercover as severed different mob bosses girlfriend and to be completely honest, this was scarier. Maybe because it wasn’t my life that was on the line this time. This time it was someone that I love.  
“He was like this when I found as him. Not me...this time, I swear.” May crosses her heart with her free hand.  
“I would very much like to chase down my future wife now.” I grumble, and Melinda can feel the force of confused and pained rage trembling through and out of my entire body in waves.  
“You’ve finally given in, have you?” May chuckles.  
“Yes, and now there is no chance of my ever ever going back.” I say in a near growl and May knows that it’s just the personification of my fear. I am scared. I have spent many many days in fear. I have been cornered by mobsters. I have been stranded in foreign countries. I know fear, and I have spent ages in true terror. I have never been more scared than when I still thought that I had lost Jemma for good.  
“My, you do move fast.” May says in an amused tone as I take off again, another thing I do a lot of, there is a large amount of this involved in spy work. However, I don’t think that she referring to how quickly I could run.

\-----/////-----

“Jemma! Are you okay?!” I shout as I storm into the CIA facility.  
“I’m fine but...you have to believe me….I am not crazy, I swear!” Simmons barely manages to get out, in a half choked yell to her protectors as she is being dragged into the facility, held back by two orderlies. May and I are forced back and away as I struggle with everything in me to get back to her.  
“LET ME GO!” I yell, my anger fueling me once more, trying to shake May, and anyone else trying to hold on to me.  
“Skye, please believe me, I am not insane.” Simmons shouts once more as she is dragged through the double doors and presumably sedated.  
“You may see her in the morning when she might have calmed down a bit.” one of the orderlies promises.  
“I will see her now.” I say with a deep rumble to my voice.   
“No you will wait until the morning.” the orderly tries to correct me.  
“We can wait until morning. Jemma will be fine until then.” May advises and I know that I really should probably listen.  
“If she’s even still alive then.” I mutter. “Is she going to be okay, May? I mean...in her mind, her head, the Intersect, will Simmons still be Simmons? Will she still be my Jemma?” I ask, suddenly very very frightened.  
“I don’t know, Skye. I can’t tell you anything at all for sure. I make no promises.” May says, suddenly showing a bit of fear and anxiety. She squashes that it immediately.  
“Anyway, we will be back first thing to check on her, I swear.” May does and can promise that.  
“We had better be, and we had better come back to find her happy and healthy.” I rumble again, I hadn’t always been completely sure that I was capable of that, that kind of love.  
“I do know of a stop that we can make, though. There’s a man who owes us an explanation.” May now sounds mildly put off as well.  
\-----/////-----  
“Hello there, Dr. Coulson. Have you got an explanation prepared for us, yet?” I ask as I push my way into the psychiatrist’s home, May at my heels.   
“Whatever...do you mean?” he asks, a very poor liar.  
“Jemma told me that you said that she was perfectly healthy and that everything was okay.” I grab him by the front of his shirt and hoist him into the air. “Was she telling me the truth?”  
“Of course not! I told her that she should take a vacation from the business for a while. The Intersect has been wearing out her mind and her body. It is literally burning up her mind. Jemma Simmons is not physically capable of handling the strain. It could drive her mad, cause permanent brain damage, bring her to brain death, and would most definitely eventually kill her. That is what I told her to tell you. I’m very sorry that she failed to do that.” he answers me, and I most definitely don’t think that that is good enough.  
“Jemma… lied to me? Oh, of course she freaking did.” I gasp, drop the man, and stumble backwards into me. “She was trying to prove herself. She thought that I thought that she wasn’t good enough or something stupidly brave like that. Stupid, stupid Skye.”  
“Are you alright?” May asks, a very clear sign that May herself wasn’t okay at all either.  
“If she isn’t dead when I get to her, I’m going to kill her myself. Who does she think that she is allowing me to fall in love with her and then letting all of this happen?! It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all!” SKye shouts, stomping around and breaking random glasses and plates, waving her gun around carelessly. ”I haven’t even told her...she’ll die thinking that I don’t love her back.’ I collapse onto the couch, letting my weapon fall onto the couch beside of me.  
“Skye, you need to calm down.” May tells her. “You’re one of the best agents that this nation has ever seen. Now, tell me, has Jemma seemed at all mentally ill to you?” the elder agent kneels down in front of the younger, taking my gun, every inch the mentor.   
“Apart from her really very consistent nightmares, no.” I answer, thinking carefully through the past three weeks.  
“That...that is one of the first stages your agent is completely sane at this point I would presume. Her mind is grabbing hold of the Intersect and using it during REM stage sleep.” Coulson interjects.  
“Does that meant that all of the crazy theories that she has come up with are true?” I extrapolate form the given information, my agent’s spy mind going into overdrive.  
“That means that she is in danger.” May concludes.  
“Thank you, we’ll be going now.” I laugh, kiss the top of Coulson’s bald head and runs for the door, joy, fear, and excitement all coursing through me at once. this was the exact feeling that had gotten me hooked into the spy life in the first place. Now, I was using it to save the love of my life’s life.

\-----//////-----  
I kick in the doors to the psych ward once I have broken my way into the CIA secret hospital. It was much too easy, someone had obviously broken in ahead of us, and opened up the way, another sign that Jemma right about everything and therefore of sound mind and body for the moment.  
I find her slouched against a wall, cradling her head in her hands. I have shot the enemy agents in the time it took her to blink twice, probably ring operatives in their thighs before she has realized that i’m here.  
“Jemma, are you okay?! Don’t try to flash, I have you safe for the most part. Alright, sweetie?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm. Her only response is a grunt of pain. The last agent of the bad guys collapses and I run to her.  
“Stay calm, I’ve got you.” I promise, cradling her to me.  
“I kept it safe.” she mumbles, wrapping her arms around my waist like a child and holding something out to the Cavalry herself.  
“The tooth...I kept it for you.” she sighs and passes out, blood running from her nose though she had suffered no injury.  
\-----/////-----  
Simmons: I wake up in a hospital bed with an awake and alert Skye guarding me from the chair by my side. I expected absolutely nothing less from my guardian angel.  
“Morning.” I mumble as a slow grin spreads across her face.  
“You should know that I’m mad at you.” she says, and it’s really hard to believe while her eyes do the sparkly thing at me.  
“Oh, really? What for?” I ask, deciding that playing dumb is my best option.  
“You said that you were alright, and I of course, believed you.” she begins, looking down and away from me, a sign that I had hurt her feelings. “You made me fall in love with you.” she looks me full in the face, a sign that she meant it. “Then you went and died on me.” her brows furrow, another sign that meant that she had been very scared.  
“I only apologize on two of those counts. The middle one I actually have worked towards for a rather long time.” a matching smile spreads across my own face as I raise up from the bed on my elbow and Skye herself stands and leans over the bed to kiss me, not for the first time, but for the first time for real.


	16. Fake Dating

“Skye! Jemma Simmons! Report to the med pod, please. Skye and Jemma report to the medical pod immediately.” Director Coulson calls for them and Skye feels as though she can hear him holding back laughter as he does so.  
She takes off running, a rifle that she had been practicing with still slung over one of her shoulders. She turns a corner and loses a bit of traction, nearly losing control and plowing into her best friend Jemma Simmons. She barely forces herself to stop in time. Jemma was the team’s (and world’s) foremost leading xenobiologist.  
“Hello,dear. Any idea about what all of the might be about?” Jemma asks as she runs behind Skye, struggling to keep up with the younger, taller, and more athletic girl.  
“Absolutely none, but I’m not completely sure that I want to find out, judging from DC’s tone.”  
“Did he sound like he was choking back laughter to you, as well?” Simmons asked. Skye grinned at the sound of her British accent. She loved it and adored Jemma.  
Her harbored crush reared it’s ugly head once more. Sometimes Skye just couldn’t help herself. She grins and slides to a stop and opens the door for Jemma, just like a proper gentlewoman.  
“Alright boss, what do you need?” Skye asks, leaning against the doorway, trying to be as cool as possible.  
“I need the two of you…” he gestures to them both in turn. “to go on a date.” he announces.  
“Say whuh?” Skye starts so suddenly that she slips and falls to the floor.  
“I want the two of you to go out on a date. HYDRA agents have followed you out on all of your most recent missions, Skye. I need the two of you to draw them out. I’m going to need everyone on hand to protect you both, so it has to be Jemma. You agree, Dr. Simmons, that FItz isn’t ready for the field, correct?” Coulson asks, that glint of mischief still in his eyes.  
“I...I concur, Director.” she mumbles, her face going bright pink.  
“There we are then, all settled. Go and make yourselves pretty.” he orders, a grin pulling at his lips as Melinda May scowls at him. Jemma scurries off but Skye stays and glares.  
“I hate you, you know that, right?” she growls.  
“You’re welcome.” he chuckles as she takes her leave. “Oh, and leave the rigle at base, okay, Daisy?”  
“Hmph.” she runs off to go change and shower.

\-----/////-----

“Here’s your comms units, your sidearm, and your special fancy gloves that Jemma made for you.” May gave her everything. “Simmons will have everything else that you’ll need.”  
“How long am I going to be bait? I won’t allow anything to ever happen to Jemma but I’m not sure that I want to.allow her to be out in the open and in danger for very much longer. Not after she has already been in so much danger.” Skye insists, her heart beginning to pound.  
“He’s rigged all of this up for you, you know. He wants to give you a chance.”  
“I know.” she says with a sigh. “And it’s all so like him too. I just hope that he isn’t too disappointed when nothing comes of it.”  
“You’ve spent too much time around me, Daisy. You’re getting pessimistic. This is not at all like the young hacker that we picked up three years ago.” May says worriedly.  
“We have all changed, May. I have changed more than most, more like my entire body chemistry. This is why I have sincerely stopped believing that Jem and I could ever be together. I’m Inhuman. I could hurt her. She was the last to accept me as I am and she has yet to call me by my actual name.” Skye turns, pulls at her hair, and stamps her feet.  
“Are you ready? I genuinely believe that this is your opportunity to get it right. I could never do that. Now, go get your girl. That’s an order, Agent Johnson.” May says with a grin that says that she is looking forward to seeing what will happen.  
“For the love of everything good and holy, this is going to end up killing me.” Daisy groans, looks into the mirror and fixes her hair.  
\------//////------  
“What’s really going on here? Coulson I don’t have any clue as to why this is actually happening. I’m quite sure that that it’s not actually have to draw out HYDRA agents.” Jemma says, a determined and mildly desperate look in her eyes.  
“You’ll find out soon enough, I promise.” Coulson says with a grin and hands her a pack of supplies.  
“Good luck, eyes will always be on you.” he promises.  
“How long is this date supposed to last?” she asks after taking a look into the pack.  
“A week.” he answers pushing her out and onto the street gently. “Like I said, good luck, Dr. Simmons.” he laughs and drives away.  
“For Pete’s sake.” they both grumble as they walk down the street and meet one another with bright red face.  
“So, how do you want to do this?” Jemma asks, scratching the back of her neck apprehensively.  
“Well, I kinda have an idea, if you would like for me to take you out?” Skye suggests her face managing to go even more red.  
“That actually sounds quite fun.” Jemma answers a grin spreading across her face slowly.   
“Are you quite ready, then?” Jemma asks.  
“Oh, of course I am. I have had this planned for ages.” Skye accidentally confesses.  
“Really? What for?” Jemma asks again.  
“Oh, I have this habit of doing this thing where I try to plan the best date ever. I have one for every state, every city, every country.” Skye says with a light laugh that Jemma hasn’t heard in ages.  
“That’s … frankly kind of adorable.” Jemma laughs, full on from her stomach.  
“I love it.”  
“Well, it has certainly come in handy today, hasn’t it?” Skye asks.  
“Let’s go on then.” Simmons says with a bright smile.  
“New York, then? To the thrift shop then!” Skye stands and glances around, her cell phone in hand. She spins once, her whole body, and points in a random direction with one gloved hand. “Thattaway!” she grabs Jemma’s arm and starts off at a light jog.  
“What the hell?” Simmons asks herself and follows, looping her arm through her temporary girlfriend’s .  
“Come on, now. I promise that we’ll have fun.” Skye swears.  
\-----/////-----  
“Alright? So why are we here?” Jemma asks, feeling acutely aware of Hunter, Bobbi, Coulson, and May’s eyes on them.  
“Here’s twenty bucks. Pick me out any outfit that you like. I’ll be forced to wear it for the rest of the day. Would you like to go with sexy, funny, or average?” Skye asks with an amused smile.  
“What the hell, let’s go with sexy, right?”  
“I was hoping that you would say that.” Skye says as she starts off. “Oi! No dresses for me, thanks!” she adds.  
The pair regroups ten minutes later, clothes hanging over their arms, and people gave them strange looks. Back on the Bus however, everyone had to give Skye her dues, so far, this was actually looking like a really great date. Her god-awful crush on Jemma was really rather obvious and the entire team was aware of it. Fitz had been terribly jealous for a while but he had quickly come to terms. Jemma was probably the only one to keep missing the signs. She thought her own feelings to be unrequited. As did Skye.  
“Hot damn, Jemma, you did well.” Skye compliments herself and the doctor.  
“You did too, how did you find a color that matched my eyes? That’s nearly impossible. How do I look?” she asks, stepping rather dramatically from the dressing room, shoving the fabric that blocked her from view away.  
“Yowza!” Skye exclaims. “I am quite good at that.” her brown eyes go wide as she leans against a wall. She looks rather yowza herself.  
“Apparently I’m quite good at this as well…” Jemma snaps one of Skye’s suspenders quite hard as she circles the younger girl rather predaratorily.  
“So I see. I do feel quite dashing, really. You stretched a bit back in time, did you not?” Skye asks, enjoying the look of her own arse in the mirror.  
“Yes, you have a great butt. I get it.” Jemma laughs.  
“So, you noticed.” Skye mentions with her cheekiest grin.  
“Naturally. Kind of hard not to really.”  
“Oh, this will be fun.”  
“It’s getting late, Has Coulson set us up somewhere to shack up for the night?” Jemma asks.  
“Of course. He’s practically my dad. Of course he has taken care of us.”

A quarter of an hour and one very creepy uber ride later.

“The bastard, I’ll kill him.” Skye insists.  
“It’s fine. I don’t mind it, we’ve even done it before.” Simmons also insists like she has been for the past ten minutes.  
“Still, it is so wrong for him to do that to us, to force us into this situation and what is with these pajamas!?” Skye whines.  
“I kind of like them...at least on you and the correct word would be negligee.” SImmons corrects her.  
“You would, wouldn’t you.” Skye laughs noticing that Simmons has been totally creeping on her.  
“Of course.”  
“When did you figure it out?” Skye asks, the most brilliant smile in the history of Skye crossing her face. She couldn’t help it in the slightest that she was a little bit in love with Jemma Simmons.  
“Probably around the same time that you did. When I was enclosed in that thing, you know. I had tons and tons of time to think about things. You were the majority of it. Can we go to bed now? I’m kind of exhausted. I wasn’t going to until I knew that you felt the same way.”  
“Of course. I wish that we could stay this way forever.” Simmons confesses.  
“We still have the rest of our date, however. A whole week.” Skye crawls into the bed next to Jemma and allows the older to girl to wrap herself around her, the same exact way that she always did whenever they found some sort of excuse to crawl into bed together.  
“Skye, darling, there are no HYDRA agents following you. Coulson did this to force us to get together. You dummy.” Jemma kisses her cheek, lovingly.  
“Oh, I’ve looked forward to this, my love.” Skye kisses her on the mouth.


	17. Memes

With Skye sick at home, Dr. Jemma Simmons’ cell phone had been buzzing like crazy over the course of the entire day. Every three of four minutes, Skye would find some new joke or meme to send her wife that Skye apparently thought hilarious. Jemma really and truly loved her wife. Jemma also really and truly loved her wife’s sense of humor. No matter what was going on in Jemma’s world, Skye was completely capable of making her laugh, or at least smile.

Jemma, however was debating what it would take to murder the love of her life and to get away with it. Skye found hilarious a lot of things that Jemma just flat out didn’t get. For instance, that really and truly creepy frog face that Skye called ‘Pepe’. Simmons had received quite a few of those, and quite a few of some idiotic dogs ‘Moon Moon’. She was starting to believe that her wife had finally lost her last marble.

She could tell when Skye was truly bored when a computer here or there would play the Cuppy Cake song or Never Gunna Give You Up by Rick Astley. It was at times like that that Jemma remembered that Skye wasn’t the only one who had made the mistake of marrying a genius.


	18. Rented the Same Apartment

Skye, at the ripe young age of 25 was finally starting to feel like an adult. She was finally going to get to move out of her van and into an apartment, her first home on her own. It made her wish that she had parents so that she could tell them about how excited she was. Then again, a lot of things would be different if she actually had parents. Having to have to find a place to live would probably have never been an actual issue. So, lack of parental units aside, Skye was excited. That is, Skye was excited until she heard the shower running in the bath off of the master bedroom, and she noticed that someone’s things were already being unpacked.

“Oh, hell no.” she groans, setting the little hula girl from the dashboard of her van on the kitchen table.

“Hey, dude, I think you’ve got the wrong apartment!” Skye shouts, barging into the bedroom and knocking on the bathroom door. When she doesn’t hear the water shut off she tests the doorknob, nearly falling into the little room when it proves to be unlocked. A woman’s shrill voice shrieks as she steps out of the shower, having thought herself alone.

“Who the bloody hell are you?!” she yells, snatching a towel from the top of the toilet and covering herself.

“I’m...Skye, I...live here.” Skye answers, trying really hard to stop staring and remember her home at the same time.

“I’m Dr. Jemma Simmons, and I live here. I would also very much appreciate it if you would allow me to get dressed. If you don’t mind. If you would be so kind as to wait for me in the dining area?” Jemma aks, red faced and annoyed.

“You’re British.” Skye states dumbly.

“Yes, and very much naked, so get out.” Jemma pushes the stunned younger girl out of the bathroom.

A couple of minutes later Jemma comes out of the bathroom in a bathrobe, her wet hair tied up in a lopsided bun, to find Skye sitting at the table staring morosely at a little hula dancer that one would usually find on a truck driver’s dashboard.

“Who did you say that you were again?” the young doctor asks as she goes about unpacking everything that she needed to make them both tea.

“I’m Skye.” Skye answers, offering no other information.

“Do you have a last name, Skye?” Jemma asks curiously. “You know my full name.”

“Orphan. No last name unless you count ‘Doe’ which no one does.” Skye scoffs.

“Do you have a preference for milk or sugar, Ms. Skye?” Jemma asks kindly, placing a cup and saucer in front of her as she takes the new information in.

“No, thank you.” Skye answers, appreciating the young woman’s kindness immensely as she moves her meager box of belongings off of the table so that they could actually see one another. “What brought you to the USA?”

“Work. I’m a scientist with SHIELD’s xenobiology division.” Jemma answers warily.

“Aliens. That’s cool.” Skye says, nodding her head as she sips her tea.

“It appears that we have been rented the same apartment, Ms. Skye.” Jemma says after carefully going over both of their rental agreements.

“It does seem that way, doesn’t it?” Skye agrees. “What are we going to do about it? I was finally going to get to sleep in a bed again and I was looking forward to it.” she sighs, running a hand through her long brown hair.

“Wait, where were you living before this?” Jemma asks, feeling mildly alarmed.

“You can see from the window.” Skye stands up and leads Jemma to a view of the city and the parking lot.

“Where?” Dr. Simmons asks.

“That older purple van there.” Skye points it out.

“You’ve been living out of your car?” Jemma asks, looking truly horrified as she returned to her seat at the table.

“Ever since I ran away from my foster home when I was fifteen.” Skye admitted. “Except for a few years of living with my ex. I actually prefer living from the van.”

“We can split the rent and live together.” Jemma decides right then. “Sleeping in a bed should be a basic human right, and you’re going to have it every night if I have anything to do with it. Let’s get you all set up.”

“Thank you so much, Jemma. It means a lot to me.” Skye says with a sigh of relief and hugging her before moving her box of things into the guest bedroom. She envelopes Jemma in a hug and squeezes her tight, making the older woman acutely aware of how very naked she was under the robe.  
“Well, this should be fun.” she mutters as Skye walks away.


	19. Gym AU

Ever since getting home, Jemma had noticed that Skye now spent a lot more time in the gym, but not the gym on the base, the small one that they had used on the Bus. Skye was so distant now that Jemma felt like she hardly knew the younger girl, she spent most of her time alone: training, working out, or researching. Jemma missed being able to talk to her friend, and Jemma missed the feeling that one day they might have been able to be more than friends. Inside the rock, there had been absolute nothingness, much like in an isolation chamber. She had hallucinated vividly about anything and everything, but mostly Skye. She had lived through, in her mind, every variation of them together and every variation of them falling apart. Having any of that in the real world seemed worth the risk.

Jemma started her reintroduction into Skye’s life slowly. She began by making occasional passes by her on her way into the Bus for something. Then on her way to ‘get something’ she would stop to talk for a minute. Eventually she would casually join Skye to workout and worked her way up until it was routine. Skye pushed her, hard, and Jemma could barely keep up, but it was worth it for the chance to spend extra time together.

One afternoon, after a hard day of work with Fitz she dropped onto a bench with a book in the Bus gym, not even about to pretend as though she were or had been planning to work out.

“Finally dropping the charade, are we?” Skye asks from her planking position on the floor;.

“What do you mean?” Jemma asks innocently, glancing up form her book.

“I wanted to see how far I could push you until you admitted that you were doing this only as an excuse to hang out with me again. I take it that you weren’t ever planning on fessing up, so I’m doing it for you.” Skye says with a smile as she lowers herself onto the floor.

“Maybe I only came so that I could watch you do those one-armed push-ups.” Jemma said just to be difficult.

“Always an option.” Skye shrugs, executing a couple as an example.

“I missed you.” Jemma says softly, memories haunting her.

“I missed us.” Skye agrees, standing up and peeling off her workout gloves.

“I was so lonely, Skye, but I dreamed all of the time. You were always there.” Jemma melts into Skye’s embrace, strong arms wrapping around her to remind her that she wasn’t alone and that she could feel. God, did she feel everything.


	20. Record Store AU

Skye had what was probably one of the best jobs that one could ever ask for. She spent her entire day around music. Music was all day. Music was everyday. However, her favorite part of the day was probably just when Dr. Simmons came in for about an hour after she got off of work.

“Hey there, Skye. Do you have anything good?” she always asks.

“Yeah, but you won’t like it.” Skye always laughs in response, she very much didn’t approve of the young doctor’s taste in music, mostly because she didn’t have much of one. At some point during her six months of patronage, Dr. Simmons had become Skye’s pet project, she had made it her main goal to teach the older woman about music.

“How’d you like your last purchase?” Skye asks as the doctor approaches the check out counter.

“It was alright, I guess.” Jemma replies with a shrug.

“No, no, you need to tell me about how it made you feel. You should have told me about how the music resonated within you.” Skye corrects with an amiable smile.

To be completely honest, Jemma thought that she had the best job in the world. She spent her entire day helping people and saving lives. Simmons never felt more alive than when she was in the Operating Room with a scalpel in her hand. Still, it was just as exciting to be in the same room as Skye. Skye was such a vibrant personality that Simmons couldn’t help but think that she actually began to glow when she was truly excited.

“It didn’t. I guess that we will just have to keep looking.” Simmons says with a light laugh.

Jemma had been playing this charade for a while now, never admitting to liking one of the cd’s whether she did or didn’t, did not matter. Any excuse to spend a couple more minutes in conversation with or in the presence of Skye, she would accept.

“Here, I brought this in for you today, come here and sit.” Skye orders in her rather bouncy way that made you want to do whatever it was she was suggesting because it would be just so much fun.

Simmons walked around the dest and sat down Skye’s stool. The younger girl passed Jemma a small personal cd player and retrieved a cd for the doctor. “Sit and listen to track seven.” SKye instructs.

Jemma absolutely loves Skye’s taste in music. Despite working in a record store, Jemma had discovered that Skye was incredibly smart, she was also a high schoool dorpout, but she was incredibly perceptive when it came to lyrics, coming up with things that Jemma never would have. She had extremely refined taste and was a fantastic conversationalist. Sometimes Jemma thought that she could sit and talk to Skye for days if she were allowed to. She say on the stool and listened to the track, occasisionally nodding along with the beat while watching Skye move around the store. When it was over, Skye handed her another cd and told her to listen to another track. this went on for a while until the store’s hours were over, after this Skye and Jemma ended up in the floor surrounded by cd’s and their covers, listening to anything and everything, then talking about it. Finally, Jemma had her wish and their could talk and talk and talk, until finally they ran out of things to say.

Outside, a storm raged and rain poured as an Ed Sheeran song played from a record, about wanting to be kissed.

“I think that I might really like this one.” Jemma finally admits.

“And why is that?” Skye asks, rolling over to look at her, their faces close together all of a sudden.

“It makes sense with what I’m feeling at the moment.” she answers with a small smile.

“Oh, really?” Skye asks again, just to be difficult, all the while leaning in.

“Yes, really.” Jemma leans in as well until their lips meet. they both hesitate for a moment, wonder ing how well this would end yo goung, Suddenly something in them snaps and they end up going for it. Jemma rolls onto her back, pulling Skye with her and on top of her. The younger woman buries her hands in Jemma’s hair and holds herself up on one elbow, surprised by how mych fire there already was between the two of them. Jemma’s hands are already sliding up the back of Skye’s shirt, cold fingers splayed out across her warm skin. Every now and then her blunt finger nails would dig in and Skye would groan, only spurring Jemma on. Soon, the shirt itself seemed to only be in the way and Simmons tugged on the hem until SKye pulled it up and over her head, tossing the object away. Jemma controlled all of the goings ons it seemed, she pushed open Skye’s legs with one leg of her own and pulled her closer with her arms wrapped over Skye’s shoulders.

Jemma’s one hand worked on the button of Skye’s jeans, as Skye worked on the buttons of Jemma’s top.

“You might want to call in sick tomorrow.” Skye recommends.

“And you might want to clean up before your boss gets here.” Simmons replies in a whisper before divesting Skye of her jeans.


	21. Agitated

Skye had just officially bought her first apartment and when everything inside was ready there was only one person she really wanted to show it to. That person was her old college roommate, Jemma Simmons, a certified genius working on her PhD in biochemistry. On in depth thought she owed a lot to Jemma. Without her best friend Skye would have never had a family, or known what love truly meant.

"And this is my room." She said shaking off thoughts that were inappropriate for her to be having whilst showing the girl she had always had a crush on her new bedroom.  
"Oooh! It's adorable!" Jemma cooed, throwing her hands up dramatically.

"You've seriously got to stop that." Skye protests, though not at all seriously, with a roll of her eyes and a blush as she perched on the edge of her new bed.

Jemma snooped around, looking at pictures on the walls and trying not to be so aware that she was in Skye's room and they wouldn't have an 'our' room anymore. She could feel Skye's eyes on her as she picked up a candid shot, presumably taken by Fitz, of the two girls asleep after a cram session. Jemma's head rested on Skye's shoulder and one of Skye's arms held Jemma close. Jemma asked, "What is it?"  
"You're so dramatic over the little things when you're stressed, Jem. Screaming 'Oh, the inhumanity!' at Doctor Who isn't going to actually help any of your fictional characters. All that does is scare the snot out of me." Skye complained.

Jemma sat down in the desk chair backwards so that she was still facing Skye.

"Mmhhh, is there anything else you would like to get off of your chest while you are at it?" Jemma asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing at Skye's irritation.

"That! That thing you do there with your lip. you need to cut that out too." Skye informed her as she stood up rather frantically. Her heart was beating erratically an her palms were getting sweaty, but Skye didn't know why. All she knew was that she had all of these feelings that she didn't know what were or what to do with.

"Yes, keep going." Simmons egged her on with a smirk, knowing that Skye was eventually going to come to to the same conclusion that Jemma had already reached.

"You still cry over Disney movies. What's up with that?" Skye said a bit more softly as she drew closer.

"Perfect excuse for cuddles." Jemma murmurs in return.

"Screw it, you're agitating." Skye decided, grabbing Jemma's cheeks in her hands gently and kissing her much less gently.

"Painfully so. I'm aware."


	22. Charity Auction AU

Skye didn't understand why the Rising Tide needed a representative at the SHIELD charity auction in the first place, much less why their representative needed to be her. Maybe it was supposed to be a subtle hint that she needed to get out more. She didn't care, she just wanted to buy her date and get out of there. Her computer was calling her name. However, she was under 'orders' to buy any date of her choosing for whatever price as her 'reward' for ten years of service. This was particularly impressive as she had just celebrated her 24 birthday.

With an internal eye roll she smoothed down her dress and sighed.

"Are you alright?" Asked a British voice from behind her. "You look like you'd rather be just about anywhere than here." Skye turned to face the source of the voice to see a slightly shorter girl whose name tag declared her as being Dr. Jemma Simmons.

"I'm the lucky representative of the Rising Tide. This is my reward for ten years of work. I'd rather they just pay for my Netflix service. The name's Skye." She introduced herself. Jemma laughed in response.

"I'm Jemma. Do you mean the hacktivist group The Rising Tide? I've followed their work for a few years. You can't be older than 23 so you must be quite talented." She said, sitting down next to Skye and kicking off her heels.

"Close but no cigar. I just turned 24." Skye chuckles, kicking off her own heels as well. "So how did you end up one of SHIELD's meat slabs?" She asked.

"My friend Fitz is getting me back for something. The lab is a battleground during a prank war."

Jemma giggled, leaving Skye rather breathless in the wake of the scientist's adorableness.

"Well, Jemma, how about we make a deal? Since neither one of us wants to be here and I can't leave until I buy someone and you can't leave until you've been bought, I'll buy you and we can go change into sweats and watch something on Netflix?" Skye proposed, hoping against hope that she didn't come off sounding very, very creepy.

"I'd like that, but if you buy me, I want a real date pre-Netflix." Jemma informed her after they had traded numbers before she skipped off to tell Fitz the good news.


	23. Survival

“Team, we’ve gotten a report of an 0-8-4. Everyone to the conference room immediately.” Coulson’s voice echoed over the intercom throughout the Bus.”

“It’s almost like he can sense this somehow.” Jemma laughed as she pulled on her shirt and tossed Skye her jeans.

“No kidding, that’s like the fifth time this week.” she said as she turned to grab her hair brush, revealing a long scar running down the back of her left thigh that Jemma hadn’t ever noticed before.

“That scar on your leg… you never told me where it came from.” she pointed out.

“Maybe later, this case looks interesting.” Skye said, pointing to the picture that had appeared on the SHIELD issued tablet. “Let’s go.”

Jemma knew that Skye was avoiding the question but, she let it slide anyway. They could talk about it later.

“Yeah, it does.”

Skye kissed Jemma’s cheek in thanks and led her by the hand to the Holo-table.

“The signals are coming from somewhere in this area.” Coulson said as he enlarged a portion of the map to show a neighborhood.

“Wait a second. I know this place.” Skye stopped him mid-briefing. She moved the screen down the street shown before stopping at a building that looked like a Roman Catholic Cathedral.

“That’s Saint Agnes’ the orphanage where I grew up. A lot of my foster homes were in this area.” Skye informed them, blowing up the image.

“You don’t think another special child was dropped off their do you?” May asked.

“It’s definitely a possibility.” Coulson affirmed. “Skye, I want you to go there and take a look around. take Jemma in case there’s some sort of sciency stuff needed.”

“Sciency stuff, really Agent Coulson?” Jemma said in a scolding voice.

“We can check the foster homes in case HYDRA has decided to leave a present for Skye. Split them up amongst ourselves. Teams of two for now and radio immediately if you find something.” Tripp suggested. “Skye can pick first.”

With a scowl she scrolled down the very long list of places she had used to live, her expression bordering either extreme pain or anger. Jemma pressed against the other girl’s side as she laced their fingers together. Once everyone had chosen two or three homes (there were more than enough to go around) they split up to get ready and rest up. Skye collapsed on Jemma’s bed and stared at the ceiling.

“I just want to warn you that I chose the worst places for us. I don’t want the others to look at me differently.” Skye told her.

“I’m sure that none of them would.” Jemma protested.

“They already do. Did you see Tripp’s face when he saw how long that list was?” Skye asked and Jemma could tell how important it was to her that nobody’s perception of her change.

“If they knew what I had been through they would all pity me and I don’t want that. We’ve all had our moments and this was mine. It’s in the past and I’d like to leave it that way. Not to drag out any old demons.” Skye said using her arms to pillow her head.

“Do this have to do with the scar on your leg that you won’t talk about?” Jemma asked, tucked up against Skye. She had found that when she needed to comfort her girlfriend, closeness worked the best.

“Yeah. It does.” she murmured, the tightness in her chest threatening to swallow her up.

“It’s okay, you can wait until you’re ready to tell me.”

“Thanks.”

Chapter 2

At some point Skye and Jemma must have fallen asleep because they woke up in the same position that Jemma last remembered. Her head pillowed on Skye’s shoulder and that same arm of Skye’s wrapped around Jemma’s waist. It was a familiar position for the two of them. Comfort found in the normality.

“Skye, honey. We’ve landed. It’s time to get up.” Jemma shook her shoulder gently, only to be wrapped up in Skye’s arm and squeezed against her.

“You’re the best, you know that?” Skye asked.  
“So I’ve been told.” Jemma responded, as Skye let her up. “Come on, babe. We gotta go.”   
“Finnnnne.” she complained.  
“I know. It sucks.” Jemma patted her back as they changed.  
\------////////--------

St. Agnes’ was a beautiful old church, Jemma decided, but she could understand why growing up there would suck. It was a little intimidating.

“Sister Estella?!” Skye called when they came in through the giant double doors to the foyer.

“Mary! It’s so nice to see you again! You’ve certainly grown! The last I’d heard, you were seventeen and had run away from another foster family. How old are you now? Are you okay? Are you hungry?” the nun asked, fussing over Skye as though she were still a child.

“I’m 24, Sister Estella, and I’m working for SHIELD now. We’ve been getting some strange readings from the area and my partner Jemma and I were sent to investigate. Have you noticed anything? May I check the kids’ rooms?” Skye asked, smiling at the sister with the sort of love one reserves for their mother.

“So you’re the Jemma I’ve heard so much about. My Mary must love you a whole lot to talk about you so much.” Estella said with a wink.

“Mary, huh? I wasn’t even aware that Skye wasn’t your name. When we get home, you and I are due for a very long talk.” Jemma scolded.

“I hate being called Mary and Sister Estella knows it.” Skye said with a petulant scowl that Jemma immediately found adorable.

“Sister Prudence is going to be so excited to see you home.” Sister Estella said, leaving Skye behind to show Jemma the children’s quarters.

“We should hurry before they get back. Sister Estella already noticed that I’m armed I bet.” Skye suggested her face falling.

“I can’t believe you used to live here.” Jemma said, looking around. ”Which room was yours?” she asked.

“Third door on the right.” Skye mumbled, lifting up the mattress in the first room and looking underneath it. Jemma looked in and for some reason was immensely disappointed that another child had moved in since Skye had left despite the six year or so difference. She couldn’t see anything of Skye in the room. Silently Skye joined her and knelt down next to a plain grey wall with a loose stone that only the children of the orphanage could tell was there. She worked at it with a pocket knife and loosed the stone.  
“Oh, you must be kidding guys.” she laughed and pulled out a blunt. She dropped it on the ground and smashed it with the heel of her boot.

“This one was mine. I wanted to grab it for you.” Skye said pulling out a flash drive.

“What’s MSP?” Jemma asked.

“My initials. Don’t ask because I won’t answer. I’ve never forgiven Prudence for naming me that. It’s terrible. I’m not Mary the little lost girl. I’m Skye, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s customary to take something and to leave something else behind.” she explained as she put an envelope into the hole.

“What’s that?” Jemma asked as she put the flash drive in her pocket.

“A letter and around three hundred dollars in cash.” Skye said blankly.

Jemma’s eyes widened in surprise as they checked the last room, but thankfully she didn’t say anything. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Skye’s cheek.

“You’re literally one of the best people that I’ve ever met. I love you, Skye.” Jemma told her.

“I love you too, Jems. Thank you for being so patient.” Skye replied, kissing the top of Jemma’s forehead.

“Mary!” another nun called and soon they were surrounded by women in habits. Jemma quickly gave up even trying to keep track of their names.

“It was so great seeing all of you. Give my love to Mother Superior and everyone. I’m going to show Jemma the gardens and then we’ll go. I’ll write again next week. Kiss a baby for me.”

“We’ll fix you a to-go lunch!” Prudence said and they all bustled away to the kitchens.

“Come on, Jemma. This you need to see.” Skye said, and Jemma could see a small sad smile creep up Skye’s mouth.

“When I was little I dreamed about bringing my family here. If I ever found one, or made one. This is more than perfect for me.” Skye said

Jemma looked at the beautiful flowers and was finally able to picture Skye among them. She could see Skye climbing in the trees and smelling the lilies. She could see Skye hiding behind a rose bush to cry and slowly grow into the woman she saw beside of her today.  
Chapter 3

“Brace yourself. The next place won’t be a fourth so beautiful.” Skye warned, her mouth tightening into a grimace.

“Alright.” Jemma answered wiping at unshed tears.

“I never thought that I’d have a home. I’m so glad that you guys found me.” she whispered as she led Jemma through a gothic hall where they said goodbye to Sisters Estella and Prudence and collected seven or eight packed lunches for them.

“At least they honestly love you.” She told Skye.

“Take care of her.” Estella whispered to Jemma when the older woman hugged her.

“I’ll do my best.” Jemma promised. “She’s a stubborn one.”

“Come on, Jems!” Skye shouted from the giant double doors.

“On my way!” 

While Skye drove to their first address Jemma could see her girlfriend’s knuckles go white around the steering wheel.

“I was fourteen when I stayed here, so if we’re lucky he won’t recognize me.” Skye told her.

“You don’t look like a Mary.” Jemma told her in response. “How long were you here for?” she asked.

“Two months. He took pictures of us all and hung them in the hall no matter how long we were there for so he still might know who I am.” Skye said and Jemma had to wonder what had happened her to cause Skye to react to seeing it like this. The jaw in the younger girl’s jaw was working overtime as though she were chewing on something. Jemma decided to keep a close eye on her. She reassuringly took hold of Skye’s hand that she squeezed in response before they climbed the rickety steps. She took a few deep calming breaths before knocking on the door.

“Who is it?” asked a deep male voice from inside.

“SHIELD! Open up! We’ve got some questions for you about some recent disturbances in the neighborhood.” Skye called. 

“Stand behind me. He doesn’t trust government agencies, kind of a paranoid.” she whispered.

“What do you want with me?” he asked, poking his head out of the door.

“Mr. Walker, are any of your foster children home?” Skye asked.

“Only the baby.” he replied.

Skye’s voice dropped to a growl, and she still stood defensively in front of Simmons, almost as though her body were a shield of it’s own. 

“Please let us in, we only want to talk.” her voice grated. “Or we will come back with a warrant.”

“Fine then.” he growled back and they came in. The house was filthy, beer cans on the floor and the sofa stained with who knew what. Empty paper plates littered almost every surface and Jemma could see that the photos Skye had been talking about were frameless and hung with whatever this slob could find at the moment.

“Simmons, would you please get the baby.” she said articulately without once looking at her. She crossed her arms across her chest and stepped back, her body language cutting her off from everyone and everything.

“Mary Sue. I can barely believe my eyes. You’ve gotten even more beautiful.” he looked her up and down, even his gaze made her feel violated. He put one meaty, greasy hand on her shoulder and she shrugged him off.

“You lost your right to ever touch me a long time ago, Mr. Walker. The last time I was here, I swore that you would lose the next limb you touched me with. Don’t make me keep that promise.” she grabbed the wrist and manipulated his arm so that he was forced to the ground with a crash. Skye grabbed the thinning grey hair on top of his head pulled his head back roughly so that he was looking at her upside down from on his knees.

“Skye! Is everything...whoa. What’s going on?” Jemma called, rushing into the room, a baby boy in her arms.

“You always did like it rough.” Walker laughed, his tongue running over permanently swollen lips.

“Take the baby and go to the car, Jemma.” Skye warned and the scientist could have sworn she felt the ground tremble with Skye’s voice but dismissed it as her imagination.

“What’s happening? Skye?” Jemma asked her own voice trembling. 

“Is that your girlfriend, Mary? That night...did I ruin men for you? I still dream about your screams.” Walker laughed, his already red face nearly turning purple.

“You want to talk about that night, Walker?!” Skye shouts, her own face contorted with rage. “You pulled a sleeping fourteen year old girl from the top bunk of her bed, tearing her leg open. You covered her face with a pillow to muffle how she screamed and begged for you to ‘Stop stop please stop.’ I couldn’t...couldn’t breathe. You undressed me and did...terrible, terrible things to me.” Skye was screaming, crying, and laughing all at once. “You didn’t ruin men! You ruined me! I died that day.”

“Jemma, take the baby to the car.” she ordered again, the tremor came again, rocking the scientist on her feet and she knew now that they were in time with Skye’s voice.

“Skye, are you doing this?!” Jemma asked, fear lacing her voice as she watched. She wanted to go to the love of her life and comfort her, but she needed to call for backup and get the baby out before the house fell down around them. Somehow, she knew that it was Skye’s emotional turmoil that was causing the house to shake.

“I don’t know how I’m doing this or how to stop it. Honestly, I’m not sure this is me. Please get out. Call Coulson. Tell him that if I have to be...put down, I want it to be him. Not May, him. Go Jemma, I love you.” Skye never looked at her while she spoke and her words were laced with some kind of ancient, terrible power.

Her eyes wide and tears falling, Jemma replied, “I love you, too.” covered the baby with her own body and ran out. The only place not trembling in the near vicinity was the car, proving in Jemma’s mind that it was Skye causing the earthquake. Jemma sat in the car’s passenger seat and rocked the baby until he quieted and she could call Coulson on the comms.

“Sir, we have a big problem, were you aware that Skye has superpowers because I sure wasn’t told. We need you here ASAP or she’s going to kill this guy and maybe the rest of us. Oooohhh,shh, honey it’s okay. She’s causing the earthquakes. And now the baby is floating. We found the 084.” she rattled off the address.

“Is that Skye you’re talking to?” Coulson asked in confusion.

“Of course not, it’s the baby.” she said and hung up on him.

 

 

Chapter 4

The others all arrived within three minutes of Jemma’s call to Coulson and gathered on that five by five square feet of steady ground that didn’t feel like it was about to collapse in on itself.  
“She’s a lot more powerful than I ever expected, May.” Coulson said thoughtfully as limbs began to fall from trees.

“Uhm, Jemma why do you have a baby?” Fitz asked.

“Oh, thank you Fitz, here.” she said and passed the little boy over to her best friend.

“Skye had me get him out before all of this started.” Jemma’s heart hadn’t stopped aching or worrying for her since she had left the house. Her eyes had held so much pain.

“I think that all of this is related or connected somehow to her emotions. It started when they were arguing.” Jemma murmured to herself. With Fitz taking care of the floating, crying infant, she could think much more clearly.

“It got progressively worse as she got angrier and calmed when she spoke to me.”

“So we can go in and try to calm her down the same way we would Bruce Banner?” Coulson asked.

“Yes, but we should don protective gear first. I hate to say it but I don’t trust her like this.” Jemma warned.

“We? You can’t possibly intend to…” May protested.

“No one will be able to calm Skye the way Jemma does.” Tripp interrupted.

“Alright, we go in cold and let Simmons do the talking. Get right in her field of vision and keep her focus on you. Talk to her like we aren’t even there. Take her focus off of Walker, and if you can, get her to let him go. If not, then he deserves to die anyway.”

“You know?” Jemma asked, looking horrified.

“It’s in her past medical records, I was scoping her out before she deleted all of the files related to her past existence. Our Skye is a special girl." He said.

"Let's go.” said May, buckling up her and Jemma’s bulletproof vests. “Before she goes too far and kills all of our special selves.”  
Jemma jogged up the stairs in case they tried to collapse underneath her and through the doors where Skye had Walker on the ground with a foot on his throat.

“Give me a reason not to kill you.” Skye told him and Jemma recognized the undertone of power in her voice, her pistol trained on his head.

“He can’t. He deserves it and he knows it.” Jemma said honestly, moving into Skye’s field of vision as the others trained night-night guns on her from behind.

“Jemma? What are you doing in here? Where’s the baby?” Skye asked and the tremors calmed a little.

“He’s outside with Fitz. He’s really quite adorable. Mr. Walker, does the baby boy have a name?” she asked Skye’s captive audience. THe tremors increased with Skye’s shifted focus and Walker didn’t answer.

“The lady asked you a question.”Skye pressed with her foot and the house rocked.

“Sa-Samuel.” he rasped and his nose began to bleed.

“Samuel, what a pretty name. Don’t you think so, Skye?” Jemma asked nervously. She had never been trained in hostage negotiation.

“Pretty, right what are you trying to do here, Jemma?” Skye growled, her grip readjusting on her gun.

“I’m trying to get you to let him go.” she replied simply.

Chapter 5

“You said yourself that he deserves to die for what he did to me and all of those other children, what he planned to do with Samuel.” Skye protested.

“I did say that and it’s true. But, you know what else is true? That you don’t deserve all of this Skye.” she asked. “You don’t deserve this and neither do I. You don’t deserve to have his face plague your nightmares as you wrestle with whether or not you did the right thing, when you’re supposed to be sleeping peacefully beside of me. I don’t deserve to lie beside you as you wrestle with that and have to wonder whether or not I could have stopped you. If that didn’t happen immediately, it would eventually. You don’t deserve his filthy blood on your hands, or the weight of taking his life on your conscience.” Jemma spoke softly and carefully as she crept closer and closer to Skye as the earthquakes calmed underneath their feet.

“There’s me, Skye. Do you honestly want me to watch you kill a man? Do you think that I want to see you in this kind of pain? I would never think to pity you for your past. It makes me hurt inside, Skye. Your pain hurts me. Please stop.” Jemma begged as the tears escaped Skye’s eyes and she collapsed into Jemma’s arms. Jemma took her gun and passed it to a pained looking May, and Skye didn’t even register it.

“I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.” they murmured to each other over and over again. That is until Skye attempted to stand on her own and she passed out cold.

“Guys, a little help here. She’s out.” Jemma requested as their footing finally evened out.  
BANG echoed off of the walls behind them as Tripp took Skye into his strong arms.

“COULSON!!!!” May yelled at him as he fired two more rounds into the unconscious, and now dead man’s body.

“Simmons was right. He deserved to die, after what he did to her and all of those other children, this isn’t the kind of monster that we are supposed to have to fight.” he proclaimed after his magazine was empty.

“What exactly happened here?” Tripp asked still holding Skye and looking incredible confused.

“That’s Skye’s story to tell. Not mine. When she’s strong enough you can ask her.”

“Stay awake, Simmons you need to be there when she wakes up. We don’t know what frame of mind she’ll be in.”  
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else."

Chapter 6

Jemma had been awake for the past four hours and she was about to forfeit in her horrible plastic chair.

“Jems...’s at you?” Skye asked groggily.

“Yeah, it’s me. How’re you feeling?” she asked gently.

“I’m tired, but you’re the one who looks exhausted. Come on and climb in.” Skye said.

“You’re still…”

“Get in, Jems.” she repeated, and Jemma didn’t have the energy or the will to argue.

Carefully she nestled into Skye. “Much better.”  
“Are we going to be okay?” Skye asked.

“Of course. I love you and you love me and I’ve discovered that I don’t need nearly as much as I thought I did to survive.”

Part 2 one week later

"We're going to put you and Simmons in a safe house until you're not in danger anymore." Coulson told Skye, worry creasing his face.

"Do you think that she'll ever forgive me?" Skye asked from her hospital bed, her own face furrowed in pain. Ever since the 'incident' when Skye had confessed that she had in fact known that there was something different about her the whole time Jemma had been giving her the silent treatment.

"I don't know...but taking a bullet for her was probably a step in the right direction." Coulson joked, though it was plain that he wasn't sure about leaving an injured, untrained, and unstable super agent alone in the hands of her pissed off girlfriend.

"Hey AC, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, I've had worse and as I've recently proven. I'm more than capable of defending myself." She tried to joke back, but her shoulder hurt too much to laugh. 

"Oh, I've figured out how to get Jemma in here when I need to see her, watch." She said and with a wince, sat up and swung her legs over the side and attempted to stand. As soon as her feet hit the floor, Jemma was in the room yelling.

"If you want to get yourself killed or shot, or be all noble and sacrifice yourself for someone, that's fine by me! Just don't expect me to stick around and watch. You get your ass back in this bed this instant, or so help me I will cut off your morphine." Jemma fussed and Coulson chuckled at Skye's pleased expression.

“Gosh, you’re pretty.” was all Skye said in response. Jemma rolled her eyes and blushed before leaving the room. 

“Probably not the best way to get her attention.” Coulson chuckled.

“If we weren’t on an airplane I could cause an earthquake.”she offered with a shrug.

“No super-powers until we have you somewhere where you can practice safely.” Coulson ordered immediately.

“But I want tooooo.” Skye protested like a petulant child.

“No super-powers.” he said a bit more firmly this time and checked his watch. “We should be at the landing strip soon. The others and I will be back for you in a bit.” he promised. “I’m sending in Simmons to keep an eye on you.”

He stepped out and had a word with her before letting her in to see Skye.

“Simmons, I know that you’re angry with Skye for not having told you about her...unique history before. You two have a strong bond, but it’s nothing like the one that you and Fitz share. You’re Fitz’s confidant and his best-friend. Skye has never had either of those. She’s used to being self-reliant and above all, keeping her secrets to herself. When I told her to not tell anyone about who and what she is, her mind didn’t immediately include an ‘except for Fitz’ clause the way you would. She values her position here, with you, so much that she was willing to lose you to stay near you. We’re the only family that she has ever known and she’s willing to die to keep it and you. She has no idea who she is or what it is that she is becoming and she’s scared. She’s scared of herself and she’s scared of losing you. I bet that there are other things that she wishes that she could tell you as well, if you can get her to open up to you. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” 

chapter 2

Jemma moved to the one way window and looked in at Skye. Even having just been shot she looked jumpy and ready for action. Just like for the first few days of observation she would make a fist and then stare at her hands. With the help of Coulson’s advice she was finally able to place the expression... Horror. Skye was terrified of herself and what she might be capable of.

“How do I help?” Jemma asked, but when she turned around Coulson wasn’t there. WIth a sigh she slid into the med-pod.

“Need more blood?” Skye asked, sticking out her arm to Jemma.

“No, I just wanted to come in and see how you were doing.” Jemma said.

“I don’t know. You’re my doctor.” Skye said, her gaze heavy on Jemma.

“I didn’t mean physically, Skye.” she corrected.

“I didn’t know you cared. The only person I have to talk to is Coulson and all he knows is… well he doesn’t know much.” Skye’s face creased in pain.

“You shouldn’t be hurting that much anymore.” Jemma said worriedly.

“It’s not the gunshot. It’s my head.” Skye replied. “I’ve been having them all day.”

“Of course I care Skye. I was just rather pissed off. You can always talk to me. I love you. What all did Coulson know?” Jemma asked, sitting next to Skye on the bed.

“Closer.” Skye ordered before she was going to talk. Jemma scooted a little bit closer to the younger girl.

“Closer.” Skye said again and Jemma curled up next to her the same way they always did to sleep.

“I was an 084. I was found in a little village in China. By the time they got to me everyone else there was dead. I was just a baby. I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that as an infant i was powerful enough to kill all of those people, even the agents who had come to collect me. Another team was sent in and they found me in the arms of a dead SHIELD agent. Both of those agents are dead now as well, I think, after dropping me off at the the orphanage. The earthquake...I had no idea that I was capable of that. I’m sorry.” Skye said, her voice full of emotion.

“You think I’m angry because you have powers?” Jemma asked in surprise, pushing herself up and on to her elbow.

“You’re not?” Skye asked, looking equally surprised.

“Hell, no, I’m angry because:  
A.) You threw you stupid self in front of a bullet for me as though I were some romantic damsel in distress.  
B.) I’m angry because you didn’t think that you could talk to me. I’m not in this just because you’re so attractive and the sex is nice. I’m in for you, for everything you are, you stand for, and that includes your baggage. I love you, Skye.” Jemma fussed before lying back down again, mumbling to herself about idiotic, superpowered girlfriends with no brains in their gorgeous heads.

“We’re here, Jemma can you get her into her wheelchair on your own?” Fitz asked. He had been one of Skye’s most faithful visitors.

“I’ve got her. How is everyone out there?” Jemma asked, disentangling herself from Skye.

“It’s pretty good. Tripp’s depressed because he can’t workout. It’s getting hard to keep him entertained.” Fitz replied, a grin creeping up his face.  
` “Hey, do you think any less of Skye now that she has super powers?” she asked as an afterthought as she acted as her girlfriend’s crutch.

“No, that’s ridiculous, why would I?” he asked, looking quite insulted.

“I told you that you’re an idiot.” Jemma said. “Tell Skye she’s an idiot, Fitz.”

“You’re an idiot, Skye. We still love you. No one thought less of me while I was a stuttering, hallucinating, mess. We’ve all been terribly worried.”

“Thanks, Fitzy. I love you too.” she told him just to see him blush.

“Don’t tease the poor boy, darling. His face will explode.” Jemma scolded, as she lowered a wincing Skye into the chair.

“But it’s so much fun.” she grinned.

chapter 3

They were blindfolded after they had said their goodbyes and taken into the safehouse.

“Here you are ladies. The house is fully stocked with everything you’ll need for up to three years, but we doubt that you’ll be here that long. We’re going to miss you both very much.” Coulson said.

“We’ve even got wi-fi!” Skye piped up from her chair, her laptop balanced across her lap.

“Of course, you’re Skye, we couldn’t put you somewhere without it. You’d drive poor Jemma here mad.” Coulson chucked as May attempted to remain surly and ambivalent. Coulson hugged Simmons and told her to keep an eye on Skye. Skye stood on her own and hugged Coulson with her good arm. He pressed a kiss into her hair and told her to be good.

“Take care of yourself and Simmons. I’d hate to lose my best student.” May said and they shook hands, before they left.

“I guess we’re on our own, huh?” Skye asked.

“Nope, nuh-uh, not until you are at least 75% better.” Jemma said with an immediate bright blush. 

“Agh!” Skye yelled, her head filling with a pressure that she didn’t know what to do with.

“Skye! What’s wrong? Is it your head or your shoulder?” Jemma asked, worry filling her voice.

“Get outside. Now! Stay where nothing can fall on you.” she said as she got out of the chair and pressed the palms of her hands into the ground. “If I don’t quake, I’m going to die. Go. Now. It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. Just go.” she said with more force in her voice.

“If you die, I’ll kill you.” Jemma threatened before running outside.

Skye released whatever mental block was holding back her power and just let go. Everywhere except for where she was standing rocked and rolled. The ground bucking and the house rattling, she kept it up until her headache was gone. As soon as it was over, she ran out to Jemma, worried that she might have gotten hurt.

“Jemma, are you alright?” Skye asked, her heart pounding.

“I’m fine, how are you?” Jemma asked.

“Better than ever. That felt nice.” Skye said with a sigh.

“Mmmm. I guess that we’ve found your first side-effect from having super-powers.” Jemma said when Skye pulled her close and tight against her.

“You’re not supposed to be up and walking around, much less causing earthquakes.” she said as Skye squeezed the air out of her.

“Skye darling, I can’t breathe.” she protested. When Skye held her out at arm’s length to check her over at arm’s length.

“Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry, darling. As long as you’re alright.” Jemma corrected her, and stepped back against Skye, their bodies pressed together. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Skye’s gently until she felt the panic holding her captive dissipate.

“You’re okay, Skye. We’re both alright.” Jemma murmured to her.

“MMmmmhhhh…” she murmured and kissed Jemma again. “My shoulder doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Skye said.

“Let me look at it inside.” Jemma said walking back to the house.

“Seriously almost like it’s…”

“Gone.” finished Jemma, as Skye pulled off her shirt. There was no scar or even a scratch to evidence that there had ever been wounded.  
chapter 4

“I can’t believe it.” Jemma whispered, her fingers tracing over the wound, or lack thereof.

“Believe it.” Skye responded, equally softly. She grinned when she noticed her girlfriend’s eyes wandering.

“Are you enjoying what you’re seeing?” Skye asked.

“Immensely.” she said honestly.

“Doesn’t this seem rather unfair to you? I mean, I’m just standing here half-naked and you’re ogling me and you’re completely covered.” Skye complained, teasing the hem of Jemma’s sweater, alternating between stroking the soft skin of her abdomen and hitching her sweater up farther until Jemma lost her own patience and pulled it off herself.

“Well if someone isn’t feisty hmm?” Skye asked, giving Jemma one of her looks that she knew drove the scientist insane.

“Shut up!” said Jemma before grabbing ahold of Skye’s hips and dragging her closer and kissing her much less softly. SKye moaned into the kiss and bent and lifted Jemma up. Automatically, Jemma’s legs wrapped around her waist and her fingers twisted into Skye’s hair as their kisses went from heated to desperate. 

\-----/////-----

“Hey, Jems?” Skye whispered a few hours later.

“Yeah?” she responded contentedly as she curled around Skye and laced their fingers together.

“I think I’m ready to tell you my story now, but don’t interrupt me or I won’t be able to keep going.” Skye murmured.

“Okay, no judgement. Pinky swear.” Jemma promised in that childish way she got when she was sleepy.

“Those two agents dropped me off at the St. Agnes orphanage. The nuns were kind and lenient and quite a number of them honestly cared about us, but every time they got the opportunity they would ship us off to the first available foster home, no matter the rating or the reports out on them because they gave them the benefit of the doubt.” Skye began and Jemma was already horrified.

"Horrible things happened to us. I was molested, raped twice and beaten more times than I can count. Whenever we told the nuns of what had happened to us, they said to 'pray for them' and that 'God had a plan'. But secretly the older boys and the tougher girls would find the suckers and beat the living shit out of them. I joined when I was fourteen and barely made it through high school. As soon as I was eighteen I moved out to live with my boyfriend Miles, and we saved up and moved to China for a bit, following up on a lead we had been searching for. We didn't have any money at all and we didn't know the language so I hacked stuff and stole money and food for us while Miles looked for work. As a joke one day he signed me up for this competition to film a music video. The prize was a shitload of money so I actually took it seriously..." Skye trailed off at the incredulous look on Jemma's face.

"You won didn't you?" She asked, and Skye's face went red in response.

"Oh my God, this I have got to see." Jemma said with a giggle, forgetting how naked she was, jumping up, running into the living room, and grabbing the laptop before settling back in next to Skye.

"Can we not? It's embarrassing." She protested.

"Full disclosure." Jemma pronounced.

"Uh-oh by Chloe Wang." Skye told her.

"Chloe Wang?" Jemma asked.

"Just pull it up and get it over with." Jemma pulled up the video and watched silently, though around the chorus she started to grin like the Cheshire Cat.

"You never told me that you could sing." Jemma complained. 

"You never asked." Skye teased as she pulled up the follow up single 'Everyday In Between.'

"Imagine the teams reactions if they saw that. I would never live it down. They already look at me like I'm going to grow a third eye in the middle of my forehead." She complained.

"You scared the shit out of us, Skye. They're worried. You understandably went batshit crazy on that guy. Then the tunnels..."

"I never wanted anything more than to be a normal girl with a mom and a dad. Now look at me." 

"You're amazing." Said Jemma. "You've been through hell and back. You didn't get bitter or cynical and you honestly care about people. You've spent the majority of your existence searching for your parents and when you found your father and he was...what he is, you didn't break down or let it change you. Now, you're just a little bit more special than the rest of us and you've got a family, even if it isn't the one you were looking for." Jemma told her. Skye didn't respond, she just kissed the top of Jemma's head and hit play on the stupid song. Every now and then a warm tear would hit Jemma's shoulder and she would edge closer to Skye. 

"I love you, Jems."she murmured at the end of the song. 

"I love you too, Skye, no matter how many horrible songs you put out in China."

chapter 5

"Didn't know you were dating a spoiled rich girl, did you?" Skye asked teasingly. 

"Rich?" Jemma asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I still get royalties from both songs when they're bought online. It all goes into an account I haven't touched since joining SHIELD." She replied as if it were obvious.

"You were living out of your van."   
"By choice. Didn't you see all of the fancy tech I had in there?"   
"I assumed the Rising Tide bought it for you."  
"No, no, no, I funded the Rising Tide. Anyway, we ended up finding out that I am indeed half-Chinese, but were unable to uncover any record of my actual birth. As you probably know, families in China are encouraged to only have one child due to overpopulation and when their child isn't a boy, some families get rid of their little girls. That's what the Chinese government suggested might have happened to me when we talked to them. It's what I believed until I hacked SHIELD and saw redacted files with my name from the orphanage on them."

"Is this the part where you meet us?" Jemma interrupted, knowing that Skye had been recruited for something similar and Skye didn't look on the verge of tears anymore. She stood up and started to put on p.j.'s and slid back in.

"No, but we are getting close. I had found out through one of the nuns when I was younger that I had been dropped at the orphanage by two SHIELD agents with strict orders to report to them as soon as I showed signs of abnormalities. As a precaution they had left their names and numbers. I tried them both and they were disconnected and I was left only with their names. That's why I hacked SHIELD the first time."

"You hacked SHIELD twice and they left you alone?" Jemma asked. She was lying on her side, watching Skye tell the story and running her small hands through the younger girl's long brown hair. Skye looked at the ceiling as she told her story as though she could see it taking place in the air.

"The second time I had something they wanted in Mike Peterson. I had seen his video through the Rising Tide, tracked him down with my mad skills, and stolen his driver's license. They recruited me then, and I met you." She finished rolling onto her own side and facing Jemma. She reached out to cup Jemma's cheek but was forced to stop by another crippling headache.

"What's wrong?" Jemma asked.

"My head hurts again. I thought the earthquake would fix it." She answered, cradling her head in her hands and pulling her knees up to her chest.

"I'm not qualified for this we need an expert." Jemma said.

"It's okay." Skye choked out as lights flashed behind her eyes.

"Skye...I haven't said anything." Jemma spoke for the first time since asking what was wrong.

"I want you to take deep breaths in and out and try to focus on the sound of my voice while I call Coulson." Her voice trembled more than her thoughts had.

"It'd be easier if you would stop thinking so loudly about how scared you are." Skye muttered as she practiced her breathing and watched Jemma come back. Jemma dialed and climbed into the bed, sitting up against the headboard and letting Skye lay her head in her lap while she stroked her hair soothingly off of her forehead. 

"Director, this is Simmons. Skye's very sick. She's having horrid debilitating migraines that don't go away for very long periods of time and now she's hearing my thoughts. I'm doing all I can but the tremors make it very hard to move around." Skye looked up at Jemma's face and wished that she could do anything to ease her fear as she adjusted positions. Skye could see how uncomfortable Jemma was in her mind with the way Skye was lying on her. 

"Better?" She whispered, trying to adjust the sheet while Jemma discussed protocol with Coulson.

"I know there's only a few qualified doctors..." Jemma was cut off as Skye caught a glimpse of some of her below the surface thoughts. 

"My boobs? Even now Jemma, your fascination with those..." Skye grumbled a wry grin poking through despite the pain.

“Oh, hush. Coulson, she can ‘hear’ my every thought, what’d you think...She knows everything you’re saying as soon as it enters my mind. Yes, dear?” she asked, her attention turning to her mussed girlfriend, when she poked her stomach.

“Not just you, the whole damn town…”she moaned. “Every thought, every emotion, and feeling. Bathroom! Now!” she insisted, despite knowing that she couldn’t touch the floor without another earth-shattering earthquake rocking the town...well, worse than it already was. Jemma grabbed a bedpan and stuck it within Skye’s reach.

“Did you catch that, sir? Good, yes, please hurry, thank you sir.” Jemma hung up the phone and turned to Skye looking rather pale. And even though she already knew that Skye knew. “Good Lord, love. He’s called in a favor with the Hulk for you.”

Chapter 6

“I didn’t even realize the house was shaking.” was Skye’s completely unrelated and random response. “But even the people down in the town can feel that something’s off.”

An hour later Skye had told Jemma of all of the nearest town’s drama.

“The jet’s come within my range. want to hear Bruce Banner’s innermost thoughts?” Skye asked with a pained snort.

“No honey, that would ruin the magic.” Jemma replied, her heart beating hard as she helped Skye into clothes.

“IIt most certainly would. I’m doing my best, here Jemma. I don’t mean to scare you like this. Though I certainly feel much less insecure now. I hate invading everyone’s privacy like this and I’m desperately trying not to cry. why does everyone have to be in so much pain all of the time? I don’t understand. I’m not seeing the balance. There is absolutely no magic present here, unless you mean me, and we have no idea what I am.” Skye’s face creased and she grabbed onto Jemma for support. 

“How’s the pain? One to ten.” she asked, trying hard to block her fear from Skye now.

“It’s okay, not quite as bad now. And as for the other thing, eight.” 

It took a moment for Jemma to realize that Skye meant that Jemma’s fear wasn’t bothering her as much as it had been and that the physical pain was still killing her, maybe literally.

“They’ve landed.” Skye informed her suddenly. “It’s okay to fangirl. I can look in your head, I won’t get jealous. Some of those memories with Fitz though, they might have made me a little green...or greener. I look like I’m going to throw up...again. Oh, they’re here, any other color.” SKye tried to joke.  
Not funny.  
Can’t blame a girl for trying. Honestly, I just wanted to see you smile. Observation numero uno, lying telepathically is impossible. I was going to say get in your pants, but the brain meld thingy wouldn’t let me.

“Dr. Simmons? Agent Skye? It’s Dr. Banner. Director Coulson, who isn’t dead, sent me. I’m going to need to have a word with that man.”

“We’re in here Dr. Banner.” Jemma called, swiping at Skye’s sweaty brow with a cloth as though to make her presentable.

“Pissed off much?” Skye asked.

“Always. Judging from the instability of my footing, I’m assuming you feel the same?” he asked.

“You give off more psychic waves than anyone else, doc. Is that because of the gamma radiation or your tortured past?” instead of looking to Banner for answers, she turned to Jemma.

“It could be either...or both for that matter.” Jemma answers, her heart glowing with pride that Skye still looks to her for answers even though Bruce Banner himself is in the room.

“This is Dr. Jemma Simmons, my girlfriend, and an all around expert on everything Skye-slash-Mary-slash-Daisy-slash-Quake. Also, she’s a genius with more Ph Ds than you so don’t you dare underestimate her. Or try her, for that matter.” Skye warned him.

I can hear you thinking that she’s attractive. One word: mine

“Quake?” Jemma asked, accurately guessing that Skye had been staking her claim, even though she possessed no mind reading powers. She just knew Skye, really, really, well.

“That’s Skye’s code name, or heroine name, whichever you prefer.” Banner filled her in.

“Oh, that’s cool.” Jemma lied.

They totally could have done better. Jemma thought in Skye’s direction.

Coulson and Fitz came up with it. Skye replied and mid-thought the pain was back in full force. Skye held her head in her hands and tears streamed down her face. Jemma read the need for the bed-pan in her expression before she could speak.

“Tell me everything that’s happened since you got here. Get everything off of the Quinjet and get out of here as quickly as possible. You're overloading her!" Banner yelled before turning his attention to Skye.

"Simmons, if you don't mind." He asked. Jemma started working and talking at the same time. She and Banner were a good team, not as perfectly suited for one another as she and Fitz were but good enough to only need short and concise sentences to get points across and stay out of one another's way.

"There's no physical reason for the pain so I'm going to have to assume that it's her body and psyche adjusting to the addition of her powers. Without her father here to explain what is exactly is happening , I’m going to treat her the same way I was treated as I adjusted to becoming the other guy.” Banner decided.

“How was that?” Jemma asked, curiosity and worry coursing through her in equal amounts.

“I was left alone with only the necessities and medication for the pain until I was strong enough for us to test me. It took a long time and lot of effort. For now I say that we just let her sleep. She’s going to need it.” he looks over at Skye and smiles.

"She's strong, I can see why Coulson is so fond of her. He wouldn't have called me in otherwise." He added. "What's she looking for?" Skye reached out in her sleep.

"Me, sir. Neither of us like to sleep alone. Even before we were together, we usually ended up in the same bed." Jemma said with a blush.

"Get in with her and we can keep talking. You said that she was able to 'hear' everyone in the nearest town? Did you catch the name of the town?" He asked as Jemma pulled up a pillow against the headboard and sat up, adjusting Skye so that Skye was settled against her. Banner and Jemma talked and hypothesized until late at night and he retired to his own room.

Chapter 7

"Jemma, are you awake? Jemma?" Skye whispered to the sleeping girl beside of her. 

Jemma? She thought into Jemma's mind. 

Skye...voice...girlfriend...very pretty...Chinese popstar... Was the scattered response she received back.

"Good morning, Quake." Banner said from the doorway. ""Let Dr.Simmons sleep. She stayed up late and worked with me on some theories. She's probably exhausted. She cares a lot about you." 

"I know, thank you, Dr. Banner. You're her hero, you know." Skye told him, kissing the top of Jemma's head and stroking her hair. 

"I figured that out without being a mind reader. Do you feel well enough to train today?" He asked. "Tell me telepathically, so that you can't lie."

I'm physically ready, but I can't get comfortable with letting you get into my head. I'm not sure that I would be cool with letting anyone into my mind. Maybe not even with Jemma. She thought to him.

That's completely understandable, however, for now, until you are able to trust either Dr. Simmons or myself completely, you'll be going through our minds. He responded. Get dressed and ready and meet me in the living room. And with that he left to get ready himself. 

\-----//////-----

When Jemma woke up she could still feel the shadow of Skye's mind in her own, though it was now much less intrusive. Once she was ready she left the the room to find Skye and Banner sitting across from one another, cross-legged, with closed eyes and connected hands. She was only a little disappointed that they hadn't waited for her. She could feel that it was early afternoon and there was no evidence that either of them had eaten so she set to work making lunch. Skye was notorious for skipping breakfast. 

"Sorry, Bruce, I'm too tired to..." Skye said an hour later, dropping his hands and gasping for breath.

"No, it's alright Quake, there haven't been anymore quakes or tremors and you're getting better at searching for pertinent material. You're doing a lot better than I thought you would by now." He said out loud, her mind too exhausted for speaking telepathically. 

"Jemma." She breathed, sensing the other girl's mind in the room, and nearly toppled over rushing to get to her. She immediately hugged her girlfriend tightly, surprising Jemma and nearly making her drop the spaghetti.

"Yeah, I'm Jemma, what's with all the love, love?" She asked, setting the bowl on the table and returning the hug.

"Missed you. Tired. Emotions running high. Missed you. Spent too much time in that guy's head for one day." She says before kissing Jemma full on on the mouth even with the other doctor in the room, only to be interrupted by her growling stomach. 

"I love you too Skye, but you clearly need to eat. Both of you." She ordered.

"I didn't even realize I was all that hungry until just now." Skye said.

"I'm starting to think that my memories are too impersonal and intense for proper training. Dr.Simmons, would you be willing to allow Skye to practice on you?" Banner asked as he sat down at the table with the two younger women.

"Anything she needs. You know that." She answered immediately.

"This will be extremely personal and extremely invasive. She managed to pull up thoughts that I have repressed for years. He warned her.

"I've nothing to hide." She said with a shrug.ad led the stereotypical life of a young genius. She'd been sheltered and spoiled, and joined SHIELD at seventeen years old with two Ph Ds and a lot of questions. She didn't even have anything to hide from her time tucked away within HYDRA. 

"Are we going to practice with the earthquakes at all?" Skye asked.

"Not until you learn to control this part of your abilities." He said in the same way Jemma did when Skye had been begging her for something. "Simmons, I must say that you are a fantastic cook." He added and Jemma saw that the other two were already going for seconds when she was barely halfway done with her first bowl. 

"Thank you, Dr.Banner." She responded with a blush. 

Skye saw and sent Jemma single thought. 

Mine.

Possessive cave woman. Jemma responded with a roll of her eyes. 

But you love me anyway.

Always.

Skye winked at her, making her blush even harder.

Banner noticed that they were communicating and warned her. "Don't overdo it, Quake. You have certain boundaries and you are going to have to adjust to them." He said and Jemma scowled, she really hated the nickname. 

"If you two want more there's some in the pot on the stove." She said. 

"I'm good, thanks." Banner said and Skye began to put away the dishes. Jemma couldn't help but notice that her girlfriend was covered in a light layer of sweat. 

"Do you need a break before we start back, love?" Jemma asked, reading Skye's facial expressions as easily as the younger girl could read her mind. 

"No, I can keep going, we can just take our time getting adjusted to sharing the space." Skye said with a slight scowl. She had always been a very personal person and hated having all of her memories out there for someone else to see.

"I don't want the two of you to do this the same way that we did seeing as how you are more comfortable with Dr.Simmons than you are me." Banner said when he saw Skye about to settle into the floor.

"Skye if you would sit on the couch with your legs spread and allow Dr. Simmons to sit in your lap, with your arms wrapped around her waist, keeping her as close as possible." He added.

"Erm, okay?" Skye asked confusedly.

She sat down and patted the couch in front of her with a smile. Jemma smiled back because she could tell that Skye was just as nervous as she was, but was still trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible. 

"Simmons and I thought that maybe skin on skin contact might have some kind of strengthening effect between the minds and allow for a deeper telepathic experience. Skye and I noticed a difference when our hands touched." He finished and left them to their work with a good luck. Skye caught the passing thought that he was going to take a nap. 

"You ready?" She asked. 

"Can you describe what it feels like for me?" Jemma asked. 

"It's like a maze inside of your head. All of the deeper, darker, and more repressed memories are farther in and require more effort to reach. That's what Banner and I were working on, getting as far in as possible with minimal contact. The more I touch, the more I reach. You will be able to feel my reactions to your memories. When I got angry or felt betrayed on his behalf, he could feel it. Oh, we also discovered that I could send images and feelings. Watch."

Skye closed her eyes and locked her arms comfortably around Jemma's waist. She thought about brushing her fingers across Jemma's cheek, the way Jem's skin felt under her skin, and the live she wanted to imbue into the action before pushing the thought to the older girl.

"Hmm. That's a neat trick." Jemma sighed, her voice breathy. 

"Are you ready now?" Skye asked, telepathically stroking Jemma's hair. 

"As I'll ever be." She said, still nervously. 

"It'll all be alright. I would never hurt you, you know that." She reassured her as she began to meld their minds. Immediately, she could feel everything from Jemma's point of view as well. She could feel her arms as they felt to Jemma around her waist as though she were Jemma, and her breath on Jemma's neck.

Are you okay? Skye asked.

It's actually kind of nice. Like I'm you and myself at the same time. Jemma's thought voice was excited.

Really? It only went the one way with Banner. You can feel me? Skye asked in confusion. 

Yeah, and you really should have asked to take a nap before we started. She scolded.

Do you want to try the digging? Skye asked, equally nervous.

Jemma already felt rather overwhelmed at all of the sensations she was picking up from Skye, the mind meld, and her emotions. She hadn't realized just how much Skye could feel all at once. Where Jemma's world was in black and white, Skye's was filled with shades of grey. She resettled against Skye and said yeah.

She started out with a gentle probe, watching the past few days fly by. She felt Jemma's distress and fear during the time Skye was in the temple and her relief when Skye turned out to be okay, the anger at Fitz and Skye hiding that the younger girl was an 0-8-4. The guilt nearly crushed her, and therefore nearly crushed Jemma as well. 

It's okay, I forgave you both. Keep going. Jemma's warm voice thought to her. 

Her confidence restored Skye's, and the telepath dug farther back. Passing through Jemma's experience while she had been in containment, her attempts to repair their relationship, and Jemma's attempts with Fitz, and how Skye and Jemma's relationship began. Jemma's elation at finding out that her feelings for Skye were returned would have knocked Skye over if she hadn't already been seated.

Love you, Jems.

Love you more, Skye.

Impossible. 

Skye dug back past Jemma's time at HYDRA to Providence, curious to know how Ward's betrayal had effected Jemma. She was immediately struck by an extreme torrent of fury. It even managed to scare Skye a little, sending a wave of fury down her spine on Simmons' behalf. The older girl shivered in her arms. 

"If I ever see you again, I will kill you." Jemma had told Ward, stepping defensively in front of Skye as they took him away. As soon as he was gone, she turned back to Skye. 

"You say that like I can't take care of myself." The younger joked. 

"You two had a thing, and he tried to use that against you. He manipulated your feelings for him. It's sick and wrong." Jemma was still boiling with anger, and from her new point of view, Skye now knew, jealousy.

"That was acting, Jemma." Past Skye reassured her and present Skye could feel past Jemma's heart skip a beat at past Skye's first use of her first name. 

"I had a feeling that something was about to happen with him, so I started to manipulate him. He's got some sort of sick crush slash obsession with me." Past Skye continued and present Skye felt a tidal wave of relief come off of past Jemma, coupled with both past and present Jemmas' embarrassment. 

"You knew he was kidnapping you and you went along with it??" Past Jemma asked in astonishment, somehow, she knew that there was no way Skye could ever be HYDRA. "Weren't you scared?" Past Jemma asked. 

"Honestly, I was terrified and pretty sure that I was going to die. I'm just glad that Fitz got my message. I seem to be getting myself into more and more trouble lately. How've you been, Jems?" Past Skye had led them to the Bus where their living quarters were and right into Skye's pod. Closing the door, she tugged her shirt off and pulled on one of the tank tops she reserved for training. 

Geez, girl, even then you couldn't keep it in your pants. Present Skye thought to Jemma. 

Oh hush, you say that like you're any better. Present Jemma thought back and Skye felt rather than saw her grin. 

"You have one of the most perfectly defined backs I have ever seen." Past Jemma accidentally spouted. 

"Is that what you're going with?" Past Skye asked with a quirk of her eyebrow, while bending to take off her jeans. 

"That's my story and I'm sticking to it." Past Jemma accidentally basically confessed to checking past Skye out as she observed past Skye undressing, completely red faced.

"Babe, it's okay. I catch myself staring at you sometimes, too. It's no biggie." Past Skye replied. 

"The others probably didn't tell you but when you were taken I kind of freaked out and tried to steal the jet to go save you at the first of it. I was more than a little bit of a mess and that was probably when I realized that what I felt for you was probably more than platonic. I wasn't going to go HYDRA but I refused to believe that you actually were." Past Skye told past Jemma as she edged forward and grabbed the smaller girl's forearms in her hands gently and dragged her carefully closer. Present Skye and present Jemma backed out of the memory before porn happened. They both knew what came next. 

And I had just gotten dressed too. Present Skye complained with a grin. 

You certainly didn't mind at the time, love. Present Jemma teased with a mental smirk. Without warning, Skye suddenly back tracked out of Jemma's mind and the older girl's head was left spinning. Skye took advantage of the time Jemma was using to recuperate to kiss her neck and nuzzle the soft skin, eliciting a low groan from the tiny scientist she had the fortune to be with. 

"That's not fair, love." Jemma complained aloud. 

"All's fair in love and war, or something like that." Skye said dismissively, her voice lowering to a husk in a way that always seemed to get Jemma going. Skye's hand was already underneath her shirt and her fingers were u doing her bra. Jemma raised up and off of Skye enough for her to shed the two articles of clothing. 

"Jemma..." Skye whispered and the doctor could have sworn she heard an echo of the sound in her mind as she turned around and faced Skye, on her knees, straddling the new heroine's waist. 

"Skye..." She responded as she slowly unbuttoned Skye's shirt.

She could see and feel Skye's breath hitc fingers brushed olive tanned skin. She could feel Skye's mind enter her own as she began to gently rock her hips on Skye's and for the first time they experienced the situation as one. Jemma could feel how it was for Skye and herself, and she began to quickly become confused as to who was whom. Someone moaned and she heard the sound leave her own throat but also heard it from the other direction. One or the other's hands were working magic on the others center and the sounds were both vocal and telepathic. They came at the same time, as one and the feeling faded softly as Jemma's body sank against Skye's as Skye backed her mind from the other's and the memories autocorrected. 

"We should probably go to bed and write up our findings for in the morning." Jemma suggested. 

"Jem, it's 10:30. Past your bedtime." Skye said. 

"We'd only been at this for like an hour before we got distracted." Jemma protested. 

"It's dark out, honey. We were in your head for nearly five hours. You should be exhausted. I know that I am." Skye said and gave Jemma a wry grin, she stood up and pulled on a tee shirt. She grabbed Jemma's wrists and stood her up, before carrying her bridal style to the bed. 

\------/////-----

Jemma was up at 5:30 the next morning like usual, which was sad for Skye who preferred to sleep until noon. 

"Come on, darling. Dr. Banner said that he thinks you're ready to work with the earthquakes now. You've been looking forward to this for a while."

"Five more minutes!" Skye complained.

"If you don't get up now your pancakes will get cold." Jemma warned her before sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Pancakes? Skye mentally asked.

Yes, I made pancakes and cleaned up our mess in the living room before Dr. Banner woke up. Jemma replied.

"Now get up." She said aloud.

Skye crawled out from under the covers and massaged her temples, pulling on a clean t-shirt and a pair of jeans. 

One to ten? Jemma thought in Skye's direction, knowing that Skye could probably hear everything she thought. 

Every word everyone thinks in a ten mile radius, you mean. And if you really enjoy watching me get dressed that much I'll be sure to slow down the process next time. Skye laughed mentally. 

One to ten, Skye. Jemma insisted 

Five. was her response. 

Jemma left to go get Skye something for the pain while she got ready for her day and heard a crashing noise followed by the telltale rumbling of the ground underneath their feet. Bruce Banner burst out of his room, shirtless and fell in behind Jemma, running into the room to find Skye sitting on her bed holding a brick next to a shattered window with a brick with a piece of paper attached to it. 

"What is it, Skye?" Jemma asked. "Are you okay?"

It's a threat and I am going to end whoever this might have been for it. Skye thought to both Banner and Jemma so that they would know she was completely serious. 

Upon closer inspection Jemma saw that there was a picture attached to the brick with a rubber band. It was one of her, taken through the safe house's window. 

"Skye, I'm going to be just fine. I'm in a SHIELD bunker with a legitimate Avenger and a new heroine who's a trained field agent. Even I managed to infiltrate HYDRA on my own without getting killed. I'm probably the safest person on Earth." Jemma reassured her.

You're not leaving my sight until this threat is neutralized. Skye warned her. Jemma feared for anyone who dared to cross her while her badass super heroine girlfriend was in the room. That thought at least got a smile out of Skye. 

"There's my girl." Jemma said in that very British way of hers as the ground tremors ceased.

"I still want you with me." Skye growled. 

"I'm going to call this into Coulson. There is no scenario where this is a good thing. Then I want to put Simmons and you outside to train under my supervision and maybe draw out the bad guys." Banner suggested.

"Are you saying that you want me to let you use Jemma as bait?" Skye asked dangerously. 

I swear that nothing will harm her so long as I can help it. Banner promised her mentally.

"I designed this with the help of Dr. Simmons. It should help to curb your appetite for earthquakes, control your telepathy, and stop the headaches. We aren't sure if it'll work yet, but under the circumstances...it can't hurt." Banner offered her a black bracelet made out of a leather-like substance. 

"The cool part is on the inside." Jemma suggested, and Skye uncurled the device. On the inside it was coated with a shimmery kind of tech thing that Skye knew she would never understand. 

"It has all of the same functions as the bracelet May gave you so you won't have to wear both." Jemma explained as Skye clamped it on and immediately sighed with relief. However she put it on her right wrist and swapped May's to her left, ever the sentimentalist. 

"One to ten?" Jemma asked anxiously. 

"Not a thing. I feel great." She replied.

"Good. I'll just go make that call." Banner said, but neither girl g to him. 

"Are you okay with this plan?" Skye asked Jemma hesitantly. 

"Definitely. I know that you won't let anything happen to me, Skye. I trust you explicitly." Jemma replied, holding onto the hand that Skye had put the bracelet Jemma had made for her on. 

"So, this is what you and the good doctor have been staying up at all hours of the night working on." Skye said with a grin. 

"Yeah, it was a bit more of a challenge than I expected. Dr. Banner is brilliant, but he is no Fitz." Simmons said with a sigh. 

"I know. I'm ready to go home too." Skye said back to the unspoken statement and flopping back onto the bed. 

"You're not supposed to be able to hear my thoughts without trying anymore."Jemma fussed, reaching for the bracelet. Skye jerked her hand back.

“That’s not stopping me from reading your facial expressions.” she said with a laugh. “Now lets go get my pancakes while Uncle Bruce talks to Dad.”

\------/////------  
Skye felt a lot better knowing that the rest of the tam was hiking from the nearest village to join them as she sat in a chair in the middle of meadow staring blankly at a hula-hoop.

“Come on, Skye. Not even a little jiggle?” Jemma asked, now that they had been at it for an hour.

“Don’t use that word while you are sitting in my lap, babe.” Skye scolded and Jemma went red. After recent experiments, and a couple of near tragic accidents, it was discovered that the only safe place to stand during one of Skye’s quakes was within a hula hoop’s distance of her. Bruce was stuck watching over them from cover.

I wish that the bad guys would hurry the heck up. I’m getting bored. Skye thought to Jemma.

Focus on the hula-hoop, love. Jemma thought to her. 

Skye took a deep breath and focused on the hula-hoop, staring at it until she didn’t feel a glimmer of thought about anything else...made that much harder by Jemma in such close proximity. It was there that she kept getting stuck. She didn’t know where to go from there.

“Nothing, I’ve got nothing. Not even a tremble.” Skye complained, exhaling a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“You usually cause earthquakes when you’re emotional. Get angry and let it fill you up, then focus on the hoop.” Jemma suggested. She honestly had no clue as to whether or not her plan would work.

Skye thought about these people who wanted to hurt Jemma and extended her mind out to the children’s toy. As she did though, her mind came across five unfamiliar consciences and dove into them, immediately getting the sense that these were the people coming after Jemma. 

“Five baddies are headed our way, armed, dangerous, and after me instead of you. Some of my old man’s friends.” Skye said with an eyeroll, then sent the message telepathically to all of her friends. 

Skye, is that you? Coulson’s voice echoed into her mind, awed and a little bit scared.

Yeah, it’s me AC. she responded Now, excuse me while I kick bad guy ass. She added before leaving his mind and dragging Jemma into the safe house behind her to change into field gear, not noticing the hula-hoop trembling solitarily behind her. 

"You're going to ask me to stay inside, aren't you?" Jemma asked, crossing her arms across her chest defiantly. 

"They don't call you a genius for nothing do they?" Skye asked, snarkily and Jemma didn't allow herself to get offended, she knew that   
lashing out was Skye’s way of protecting herself, in case of a fight, as twisted as that could be sometimes.

“I just want to be there for you. At least let me watch through you.” Jemma said, trying hard not to let on how scared she was for Skye’s safety.

“Like how I was in your mind a couple of days ago? When we first had the mind-meld sex? That kind of into my mind?” Skye asked, and Jemma could hear the nerves in her voice.

“Exactly like that. And I want to watch the battle through your eyes. Deal?” Jemma asked, and stuck out her hand.

“Deal.” Skye agreed, knowing that she would give up probably anything for a guarantee of Jemma’s safety. “The others are here. I’ll send Fitz in to keep you company. Lord knows that you’ve missed each other enough.” Skye grabbed Jemma’s wrist and waist and pulled the smaller scientist close and kissed her hard.

“I love you, stay safe.” Jemma whispered when Skye broke away.

“I love you, too.” Skye answered and they left the room quietly holding hands to e the others.

“Telepathy. That’s epic.” Fitz said, his arms wrapped around Jemma tightly even though he was looking at Skye.

Please don’t choke my girlfriend to death, Fitz. Skye thought to him in an amused tone. You can answer back telepathically if you wish. she added.

So. Freaking. Cool. Fitz thought.

She hugged Coulson, Trip, and Fitz once he had let go of Jemma and shook Mack, Bobbi, and Lance’s hand. 

“How well can you control your powers at this point, Quake?” May asked, surprised to suddenly find Skye’s arms around her neck, hugging her and squeezing her tightly.

“Halfway decent. I can’t get the hula-hoop to move without making everything get wobbly, but with the help of my bracelet, I’ve got the telepathy under control.” she said without letting go of May. The older agent patted Skye’s back half-heartedly and said,

“Let go of me before I draw my weapon.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I hate to break up the family reunion, but they’ve made the clearing. Are you all ready?” Bruce Banner asked from the doorway.  
“Is that…” Fitz and Mack started.

“Yes, yes it is.” Simmons replied proudly.

“He helped me design the suppression cuff that Skye is wearing.”

“Leopold Fitz! I’m a big fan.” Banner called and strode into the house, grabbing one of Fitz’s smaller hands in between two of his big ones and shaking it heartily.

I think he might pass out. Skye thought to Jemma.

I concur. she replied.

I have to go now. I love you more than I ever thought possible. SKye kissed Jemma’s forehead and hugged her tightly, simultaneously melding their minds. She barely noticed that Skye had left when she sat beside of Fitz on the bed she’d shared with Skye for the past two weeks.

“Jemma, your eyes are all glazed over, are you talking to Skye?” Fitz asked.

“I don’t have to talk to her. She’s melded our minds so that I can see everything she sees, feel everything she feels, and think everything that she thinks. It has something to do with the strength of the emotional bond, I believe. Downside is I feel her pain. You wouldn’t believe how much emotional pain she goes through each time she takes a life.” Jemma rambled. Fitz just nodded, and waited until she wanted to say more.

“Skye is using her abilities to predict her enemies next move and react first, the way Banner taught her. She’s stunning. Wait, she’s unconscious...I’m being sucked into a memory…” Jemma trailed off and Fitz jumped to the window to look out and make sure that Skye was still alive and that the mental connection wouldn’t kill them both.

Skye was a teenage girl again and her foster father was approaching her with a knife. She knew what was about to happen, it definitely wasn’t the first time, the only new addition was the knife. She was compartmentalizing her mind as quickly as possible, not wanting to actually experience what was about to happen. Just as he was pushing her over, her mind blanked just the way that she needed it to. An hour later she came to, only to find herself covered in blood with a knife in her hand and her her arm bleeding from a deep wound, the foster father lay on the ground, his body covered in stab wounds. All seventeen year old Skye knew to do was to call Miles and hope that he knew a way out of the situation. 

“Jemma, wake up sweetheart, everything’s okay, you’re okay.” Jemma blinked her eyes open to Skye shaking her shoulder gently.

“Skye? You’re okay? I felt you get…” Jemma immediately stated her interrogation despite her intense headache. She was interrupted by Skye hopping onto the bed and kissing her to make her shut up.

“Jem, I took a pretty hard hit to the head, but I’m okay. Do you want to talk about what you saw?” Skye asked and Jemma noticed that they were back on the Bus in Skye’s pod room.

“Not even a little. It’ll just make me angry. That guy… I can’t… I would love to….” Jemma’s face contoured into the sort of rage that Skye had never seen before.

“I mean the part where I killed him, Jemma.” Skye corrected blankly.

“Self-defense. You are still the same Skye that I know and love and that memory, your experience changes nothing.” Jemma lays out the blanket statement, looking at Skye like she is the single most idiotic person to have ever lived. Skye flopped down onto the bed and wrapped herself around Jemma, dissolving into a pool of affection. She clutched her girlfriend close and only moved to kiss her cheek, neck, shoulder or lips softly every now and then. She couldn’t ever imagine moving from that position ever again.


	24. Principal AU

“Mrs. Coulson, I’m the principal of your daughter’s high-school, Dr. Simmons, but I’m sure you remember that from the many other times that we have called. Your daughter has pulled four more pranks since last week when we met last. I am beginning to get used to having you in my office.” Skye’s phone’s voicemail echoed into her ear.

She couldn’t help but grin at Dr.Simmons’ voicemail, having been forced to hang out with the woman often enough that they could almost be considered friends. Skye however, was getting frustrated with the repetitive calls to the office. Sam was a good kid, Skye knew, that was going through a pretty rough time. Ever since Skye and Sam’s father had divorced, Sam had been acting out, though maybe all she wanted was to a little bit more attention from the very busy and very overworked Skye. Skye wanted to provide that and desperately wanted to be there every time that Sam needed her. Ever since Sam was born she had been terrified of being a terrible parent, her own having been a terrible example. 

“Sam again?” the receptionist asked as Skye stepped outside of her office with a scowl on her face.

“How did you guess?” Skye asks sarcastically, her inability to wipe the scowl off of her face.

“She’s a cute kid. Don’t be too hard on her.” the receptionist teased.

“Of course. She takes after her mother. She’s nowhere near as bad as I was at her age. I’m immensely proud of her.” Skye had a tendency to be incredibly defensive when it came to her daughter...her company...and her friends...and her family. Skye just had a tendency to be defensive. 

“That’s what makes you a brilliant CEO.” she was told.

\------//////-----

“Hey, I’m here. What’d she do this time?” Skye asked, as she rounded the corner to the principal’s office.

“Oh, hey Mrs.Coulson.” Simmons greeted her with Sam sitting in the chair across from the desk.  
“Hey, baby girl.” Skye kisses Sam’s forehead and sits beside of her daughter, taking her hand in her own.

“Actually, it was a very minor offense this time.” Simmons says with a smile. “I just needed to make a show out of calling you to appease a teacher.” she explains. 

“What happened?” Skye asked, feeling rather confused and simultaneously amused. Her grin fascinated Jemma. It perfectly matched Sam’s grin though sandy blonde hair differentiated them.

“Your fantastically feminist daughter accused our biology teacher of being a ‘sexist, misogynistic, douchebag, pig.’” Jemma laughed, the sound reminding Skye of bells tinkling in a church.

“Fantastically feminist? I must be doing something right.” Skye says with a grin. “What did this teacher do to incite this reaction, Sammy?”

“This is the part that got me.” Simmons says with an excited grin like she was looking forward to something.

“He was talking about the female reproductive system and said that we ladies had no sex drive of our own. That we were asexual and that there was scientific proof.”

“That is the single most hilarious thing that I have ever heard in my entire life.” Skye chortled. She laughed with her entire body the sound of it echoing through the entire room. Jemma grinned harder in response, unable to contain her brimming jubilance, at some point she had come to enjoy Skye’s company and had found herself craving it more and more. She was funny, strong, kind, and a brilliant mother, completely okay on her own. Jemma knew Skye’s story, that her husband had died a week before Sam was due. She was a beautiful child and Skye had done a great job, Sam was independant and strong, just like her mother, with the same loving heart that Skye wore on her sleeve.

“To keep it real, why don’t you head back to class, try to look like we’ve scolded you really really well too.” Jemma encouraged her, grinning as the younger girl left.

“What’s this about, really?” Skye asks, leaning forward, her elbows resting on the desk and her chin in her hands. She grinned at the older woman, completely aware that Simmons had been making up excuses that enabled her to see her.

“It felt like it had been a while.” Simmons mutters, sounding mildly ashamed.

“So, you just wanted to hang out?” Skye asks, her smirk growing wider.

“Essentially, yeah. That’s about it, though that incident with her teacher was quite brilliant. Hilarious even. You were right, you really have done well. She’s so much like you it’s crazy.” Simmons praises her.

“Come on now, darlin.” Skye says in a fake and really bad version of Simmons’ accent. 

“All right, I want to hang out with you, but only if you never do that again.” Jemma laughs.

“Why didn’t you just call me then?” Skye asks, still feeling very amused.

“I kind of felt that that would be overstepping my boundaries a little.” she admits, feeling all of the blood rush to her face just as quickly as it rushed downstairs at the sultry look Skye next cast her. 

“Please, feel free to overstep whenever you like when it comes to me.” Skye offers, coming around the side of the desk and running a hand down her arm, caressing it gently. “Drinks later?” 

“That sounds lovely, Ms. Coulson.” Simmons agrees, a grin spreading quickly across her face.

“For this to work, you are going to have to quit calling me Ms. Coulson and start calling me Skye.” she flirts, having trouble keeping herself from making a move on the older girl right then and there.


	25. Tomorrow People AU

"What the ever loving bloody hell was that?!" Jemma shouted as Coulson, Mack, and Hunter helped carry Skye out of the tunnels that had begun to collapse around them.

"Save it for later, Simmons. None of us have any idea of what could have happened to her. Just...just fix her, please Simmons, just fix her."  
\-----//////-----

"I need you to tell me everything you saw of what happened, Director, so I will know how to treat her." Jemma demanded, trying hard not to freak out once they were all on the the Bus.

"She touched the obelisk and started to float...then that's all I could see. When the stone walls opened again, she and Raina were unconscious on the ground and Tripp was gone. I wish that I could have seen more, or even stopped it, but non-Mack was restraining me."

"I'll do a full physical and a blood work-up, then. I'm getting tired of having to fix you all up after you almost die." Jemma muttered.

"But you do such a good job of it." Coulson joked darkly.

"Can you send me Fitz, please?" She asked as politely as she could.

"I'll be right back with him." Coulson promised.  
"No get some sleep, sir. You fought hard today. Doctor's orders." Jemma insisted.

"Okay, Fitz will be here as soon as I can get him. When she wakes up, go easy on her. She's probably freaked out." He told her.

"Yes, sir." She said as he left and went back to examining Skye. Careful to avoid hitting anything that might hurt her, she cut off Skye's ruined clothes.

"You're an idiot, you know that, love? You really need to stop trying to sacrifice yourself for us. No matter what you might think, we care about you, we love you and we want you here safe with us. I don't know what exactly happened to you, but I promise I'll do everything I can to help you."

I love you. She thought towards Skye as hard as she could, as though just the power of her will would wake her up.

Jemma? Her own name echoed in her mind. Jemma swung around, looking for Fitz to enter the room, though the voice sounded like Skye's. She felt like she was going crazy.

Skye? She thought back, embracing the crazy. Are you okay? How is this happening? What happened to you? Jemma asked rapidly. 

It's me and I'm unconscious, so, obviously not okay. I touched the obelisk and it woke up something inside of me like my father said. According to the other chick taking up residence in my brain, Cara, I'm what's called a Tomorrow Person, an evolutionarily advanced person with abilities. What were those again, Cara?" Skye asked.

Jemma was surprised when a sultry female voice responded.

The three 'T's' telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation, though my friend Stephen can stop time. Only the most powerful of us can do that. Cara explained. It's nice to meet you Dr.Simmons.

Have you ever heard of a Tomorrow Person causing earthquakes? Skye asked. Oh stop that it tickles. She added to Jemma.

I've never heard that but there is a lot we don't know yet. I can have some people start researching. Is Dr.Simmons also a Tomorrow Person? How else would she be able to hear your thoughts? Cara asked. 

No we just kinda started doing this when I overheard a particularly loud thought about me. Skye explained.

Jemma were you making physical contact with Skye at the time? 

No I was just looking at her and trying to will her to get better...

That should be impossible. I'll look into it myself, meanwhile Skye I want you try to get better, and Jemma, take care of her. Cara said, and Jemma could tell that she was used to giving out orders and having them followed. She also sounded much too attractive for Jemma to be comfortable with her taking up residence in Skye's mind. 

Jemma, why' are you repeating the word muscadine over and over in your mind? Skye asked as they both felt Cara leave their minds. 

Is there a thought that hounding want for me I overhear? She added. Because we really do need to talk. Jemma took a few deep breaths and prepared herself.   
And don't you shut down on me either. You have no idea how much I...  
Skye started to say and Jemma knew in her heart that Skye was going to give her the answer she most wanted to hear. That's why she felt comfortable interrupting Skye's thoughts.

I don't want to think another thought from you until I can look in your eyes and hear it, okay?

Skye could almost physically feel Jemma remove the muscadine thought barrier and soon she was bombarded by images, stray thoughts, and feelings from the older girl. Through Jemma's eyes she could see herself lying there, much too pale, and helpless looking. 

I can't imagine my life without you anymore, please come back. I've almost lost you before and that nearly killed me.

"Jemma, you okay? You look like you're about to p-p-pass out." Fitz stuttered, as he came back with Director Coulson. 

"Yeah, I'm just a little worried." She replied, chewing her lip as she felt Skye begin to comb through her memories like pages in a book.

"I see no physical reason for her to still be unconscious. She'll come out of it when she good and ready. It has less to do with her physical state and more to do with the emotional trauma. She just needs some time and patience." Jemma said with a small sad smile. 

Skye felt a rush of affection for the doctor, touched by her words and the emotion behind them.

"She'll be fine." She says to reassure herself and them. "I believe I already told you to go to bed, Director."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go update the rest of the team. Make sure you get some rest too, Fitzsimmons." Coulson advised.

"Yes, sir." They answered at the same time. Fitz turned away with a blush, looking to leave. 

"Wait, Fitz." Jemma called out, immediately feeling a pang of jealousy shoot through her mind for a brief second. It took a moment to realize that It wasn't her own jealousy, but Skye's. She nearly giggled at the thought. 

"Yes, Simmons?" He asked looking wary.

"I want to talk. Can you sit with me for a moment?" Jemma asked, patting the chairs positioned by Skye's bedside.

It wouldn't be possible for you to like leave my mind for a moment would it?

I wouldn't leave even if I know how, babe. Skye replied and mentally sent Jemma a picture of her smirking. In reply Jemma rolled her eyes.

"Fitz, I just wanted to start out by telling you how much I care about you." She began. 

Okay, maybe I don't want to listen in on this one. Where’s the exit again? Skye asked darkly.

“Look, Jemma, I - “ Fitz started, his face going beet red.  
“No Fitz, I left because I thought that with me here to coddle you, you would never get any better and I’m terribly sorry that if at any point I led you on to thinking that I wanted anything more than a platonic best friendship with you.” Jemma word vomited all of her thoughts onto him at once. Somehow Fitz’s face managed to go even redder.

“I was just going to say that I understand that you don’t feel the same way that I do and I just want things to go back to the way that they were. Also, I’m sorry about Skye. I know that you had a massive crush on her.” he replied as he left.

Now I’m glad that I stayed. Skye teased mentally.

“A major crush, huh?” Jemma heard aloud.

“Not that massive.” she corrected with a broad grin as she turned to the hospital bed where a very sleepy looking Skye was sitting up with a shit eating grin.

“You completely sure about that? Because you’ll remember that I just took a tour through your mind and that crush looked pretty major, babe.” Skye teased.

“Lay back down, Skye. I still need to run some more tests and you just came out of a coma.” Jemma ordered, rushing to Skye’s side and grabbing her arm when she tried to stand up. Her other hand landed on Skye’s hip to steady the younger agent.

“I didn’t want out first kiss to be in a hospital bed.” Skye informed her, acutely aware of their closeness.

“Wait, wha-” Jemma was cut off by the distraction of Skye’s lips on hers and was mesmerized by their softness and how their bodies seemed to melt together.

Can I hear what you were about to tell me now that I’m up and at ‘em? Skye asked mentally without breaking the kiss.

I love you.  
I love you, too.


	26. Sleep Over

The team dragged themselves onto the Bus, exhausted, tired and bruised, but all alive. That was more than they could say for the 0-8-4 they had gone to collect. He had died in a fiery blast after one of Raina’s failed Centipede injections. Skye had been oddly quiet for the ride back, while Simmons had cried quietly into the younger agent’s shoulder. No one commented when Jemma came out of her room in her pajamas and followed Skye into hers. maybe fifteen minutes later they were joined by Fitz.

“Usually, after a day like this, I sleep with Simmons, and …” he started awkwardly. Still silent, Skye scooted over with Jemma squirming along to maintain their usual cuddle position. Soon, Jemma and Fitz were asleep and Skye was simply staring at the ceiling trying not to feel anything. The door opened four more times that night and the group was joined by Bobbi, Mack, Lance, and Tripp. No one wanted to be alone. Comforted by the fact that her entire family was safe and that most were even where she could see them, Skye allowed herself to relax, and eventually to sleep. She woke up again when someone shook her arm. Carefully she disentangled herself from both Fitz and Jemma without waking them and followed Coulson out into the hallway.

“Did you organize this?” he asked.

“No, it started with just me and Jemma, that’s understandable, we’re dating. Then Fitz came in because when he’s been through something like this he always goes to her, she’s his best friend. Then Bobbi...because where else would she go? Then Lance because where Bobbi is, he is. Then everyone else.” she murmured, her exhaustion settling on her shoulders like a weight.

“Go back to sleep. May and I will probably be there in a second.” he promised, patting her on the back.

“Kay.”

“Did you get in trouble?” Jemma asked when Skye slid back in between her and Fitz.

“No, but Coulson and May are going to find a spot in here somewhere. Look at Fitz does he have a crush on me or something?” She asked when the young scientist wrapped an arm around her waist in her sleep. 

“Nah, Bobbi is pressed up against his other side and he’s a natural cuddler. At least Mack, Lance, and Tripp were smart enough to find a spot on the floor. These beds were made for one person and we’ve got four.” she replied.  
“Go back to sleep, babe. You’re exhausted.” Skye whispered to her girlfriend and fell asleep herself with Jemma asleep on her shoulder, Fitz’s arm around her stomach and a face full of Bobbi’s hair.

It wasn’t the best or most comfortable night of sleep that Skye ever had, but when she woke and saw her entire family spread across her bedroom, she couldn’t help but smile.


	27. Business AU

"I can't believe that I'm late for work on my first day!" Skye growled at herself as she tried to will the elevator to go faster. She had worked so hard to get this internship and then to get a paying job out of it, not only because she enjoyed her work, but also because she really needed to move out of her van.

"I'm sorry! I know I'm late! Please don't..." Skye fussed as she busted into the conference room.

"It's okay, Ms.Skye. Go and sit in between Fitzsimmons. They don't know that I saw them passing notes." Nick Fury told her with a gesture to the pair of pink scientists.

"Skye." she said as she held out her hand to shake.

"Jemma Simmons."

"Leo Fitz."

They replied, taking turns shaking hands.

"That ladies and gentlemen, was our newest member, Skye. She's the hacker who broke into our systems a year ago and changed all of your backgrounds to that picture of the sloth in the astronaut suit."

"Oh, my, that was very impressive." Jemma said in that adorable British accent.

"I kept mine!" Fitz said with a grin on his Scottish accent.

"Aw, shucks." Skye said sarcastically with a wry grin.

"She's completed an internship here after we recruited her for a year, so everybody please make her feel welcome." Fury finished. 

Skye glanced down and saw the piece of paper that Jemma and Fitz had been using to pass notes.

I keep expecting him to say 'argh' or something.

She scribbled on it and slid it over to Jemma with her most flirtatious smile. 

If May keeps rolling her eyes like that they are going to get stuck that way. I'm a doctor. It happens. 

She wrote in her prim and neat handwriting, not at all fit for a doctor.

Cute, funny, and a doctor? Shew, I should just throw in the towel now. 

Jemma turned and loosed a giant grin on Skye. It was clear that she was struggling to control her urge to laugh. 

"Is there something that the two of you would like to share with the rest of the class?" Fury asked.

"No,sir." The three of them replied, even though Fitz wasn't actually being an active participant this go around.

"Good." He replied. 

The two girls didn't pass anymore notes, but when the meeting was over Skye was left with the piece of paper. At the bottom in that perfect British handwriting was Jemma's name and number. Maybe running late wasn't such a bad thing after all.


	28. Random Confessions

“You’re my one true love.” the dark haired stranger informed Jemma, late one evening.

“Come again?” she responded after taking a moment to process the random confession.

“I’m sorry, that must sound absolutely ridiculous. I’m Skye and you were the first person I saw when I got here. My best friend, Ward told me that if I were to fall down here in New York and someone actually stopped to help me up that they had to be my one true love. No one else would ever bother.” The stranger, Skye said, with an adorable laugh as she accepted Jemma’s offered hand and stood up.

“I’m happy to be of service, then.” Jemma laughed back as she started to walk off and the other girl fell into step beside of her. “Love.” she added jokingly. “Are you new to town, then? I’m Jemma Simmons.”

“You can service me anytime. I moved here last week. I got a job with SHIELD in their communications department.”

“Really, I’ve worked in their labs since I was seventeen. I’m a biochemist.”

“Odd, how does a British teenager end up with that particular group?” Skye asks and Jemma can tell from her expression that for some reason this random stranger who has already professed her love to her honestly cares about her back story.

“I was a socially stunted genius with two PhD’s and a lot of questions. SHIELD had a way for me to find the answers to those questions.” Jemma told her the short version.

“Adorable and a genius. I definitely found a great soul mate. I’m very interested in the rest of this story. Can I take you out for a late dinner?” Skye asked and Jemma went red at Skye’s proposition after having only known each other for maybe five minutes.

“Anything for my one true love.” she heard herself replying.


	29. I Don't Even Know Who I Am

All Skye had wanted was a moment’s peace alone where she could digest all that she had just learned. 

"I’m part alien…" She murmured to herself as though she were still trying to convince herself that it was all real.

"Skye, are you okay?" a soft familiar voice asked from the direction of the lab as she sat up from where she was sitting in Lola.

"I can’t say that I am, Jemma. Whatever I might be." She said, not meaning to sound as harsh as she probably did.

"You’re you, Skye and that’s all that we are ever going to ask you to be." Jemma attempted to reassure her as she climbed into the car beside of Skye.   
"Jem, I’m not even human. I’m still astounded that you guys are willing to let me stay." Skye scoffed, not wanting to reveal the unshed tears in her eyes.  “Do you still have such little faith in us as that?” Jemma asked in surprise that this is what was bothering her friend. “We’ve told you time and time again that you are our family. Nothing is going to change that. We love you… I love you, Skye.” Jemma confessed, her heart suddenly picking up speed as she looked at her heart reassuringly cupping Skye’s knee before meeting Skye’s glistening eyes. 

"Even though I’m…you would still want me? I don’t even know who I am anymore." Skye asked, seeming shell-shocked by the doctor’s words.

"I will want you for as long as you’re Skye and alien or no you are still the Skye that I have always cared about."

Skye suddenly let the tears fall as she closed the distance between their mouths and their lips met.  “Tell me you love me again.” Skye whispered, her insecurities making themselves known. 

"I love you, Skye. I will love you as long as my heart beats." 

"Tell me you want me." She whispered. 

"I will want you for as long as I am able to breathe." This time Jemma initiated the kiss as she leaned across Coulson’s car and kissed Skye with all of the passion she could muster. Her hands explored the lean body underneath her, Jemma’s cool fingers leaving trails of sparks in their wake. If Skye’s AC were to ever find out what had occurred in his precious Lola that night, she might actually get sent off of the plane as she had feared.


	30. Touch Me

I’ve never been very good with physical affection. I shuddered through those awkward middle school dates because I knew that at some point during ‘dinner and a movie’ there would be the movie move or hand holding, always. I flinch away from hugs or casual brushes of the shoulder Then, I got picked up by Agent Coulson because I kind of hacked SHIELD, a little bit. There I met Jemma Simmons, the xenobiologist, who didn’t care at all that I don’t like to be touched. She’s a hugger, she’s adorable, and she’s British.

It took me a while to adjust to the touching, but we live on an airplane, so it’s rather unavoidable. Still, the random interrogations into my past that Jemma liked to spring on me were rather irritating. I didn’t grow up in a situation in a situation where touch was anything but violent or sexual and never your choice. Is it any wonder that I don’t like it? Can anyone really blame me?

“Jemma, if you want to know so badly go ask Coulson for my file. I don’t want to talk about it.” I complain, flopping down onto my bed.

“I want you to tell me. I want you to trust me enough to talk to me.” Jemma insists.

“I do trust you… it’s just that this is hard for me. There is a lot that happened that I don’t particularly want to relive…” I don’t see why she’s so insistent about this. I’ll tell her when I feel ready (which will probably be never). She sits in a chair and watched me for a while, seemingly focused on the rise and fall of my chest as I breathed.

“I can understand that.” she murmurs.

I just didn’t understand why she cares.

\-----//////-----

The next week, Jemma jumped out of an airplane, our airplane, and Grant Ward jumped after her.I had never felt fear like that before in my entire life. She just kept falling, with no signs of stopping. I yanked and pulled to get away from Coulson and May who held me back from going after her. This was not helping my hatred of touch.

It wasn’t over until what felt like a year later. Before I knew what I was even doing. I had thrown my arms around her neck and was holding her tight against ne.

“I thought...I thought that you were…” I mumble into her shoulder and hair.

“I’m okay, I’m still here.” she reassured me before hesitantly returning my embrace. She ran her fingers through my hair comfortingly. I didn’t let go for a very long time.

\-----/////-----

I was surprised that no one addressed my outburst of affection. I don’t generally hug or touch, but that one incident had begun to take up much of my brain time. Squeezing Jemma had been nice, it had reassured me and comforted me and that was something new in my world. A completely foreign feeling that I had barely begun to scratch the surface of. Then everything changed and my feelings all ended up on hold.

\-----/////------

The next thing that I know, I am waking up in a hospital bed. A hand is gently covering my own. I force my eyes open; they feel like they weigh a ton each. Jemma has fallen asleep at my bedside, my hand still in her own, and she is drooling on my sheets. It’s kind of adorable, almost enough so to distract me from my pain.

I sit up and pull my hospital gown around to see the damage causing her the aching pain that radiated throughout her entire body. All that I can see is a blood-stained bandage. Damn, that is a lot of blood. Enough to scare the dog shit out of me. I can hear my heart-rate pick up on the monitor.

“Skye?” Jemma mumbles, sitting up. I squeeze her hand affectionately.

“What happened?” I ask, totally confused I know that I’ve been injured, badly, and that my state has worried Jemma enough that she felt like she had needed to be here with me.

“Oh, thank God.” she murmurs and hugs me carefully around my shoulders, burying her face in my hair. I let her, running my hand through my hair. Maybe it was okay for her to use her touch to comfort others as well. Clearly the little British doctor needed it. I was willing to give that to her. Whatever she needed, I was there for.

“Are you okay?” I ask as she stood up. She snorts through her tears.

“I’m not the one in the hospital bed.” Jemma swallows hard. “Are you in pain? Do you need any more morphine?”

“Yeah, I’m in pain. What happened to me? Why are you so upset?” I question.

“You were shot three times in the stomach on the mission. Mike Peterson escaped. We nearly lost you. Plus, we have new people on the plane, and none of us are sure about how to feel about that.” Jemma catches me up. Slowly, I begin to remember everything that had happened to me.

“It felt like I was floating. You were crying, but still bossing everybody else around. You saved my life.” I say in awe.

“Something like that.” she answers and I can tell that she is hiding something. I let it slide for now. I know that she will tell me everything eventually.

“I’m an orphan, Jems.” I tell her.

“Yes.” she replies. That much of my history was public knowledge.

“I don’t have any family at all anymore. I joined SHIELD so that I could look for my parents. I spent my childhood bouncing amongst foster homes and orphanages and a couple of times, juvenile detention.” I take a deep breath and sigh as the morphine enters my system.

“Not all of those homes were good ones, Jemma Simmons, and a lot of bad things happened to me. That’s why I’m glad that I have you as my family now.” I say as I fall asleep.

“Can you just hold me for a while? Until I fall asleep?” I ask, pushing through the fog for just that much. Jemma’s eyes widened in surprise, before they softened and she nodded.

“Of course, Skye. I will do whatever it is that you need me to do.” Jemma promised.

“Thank you, for everything, Jemma.” I said as Jemma curled into bed despite the fact that she had literally no room at all. Skye grabbed her hand and pulled it across her body gently.

“Like I said, anything.”


	31. Adrenaline

Why of course the air conditioner in the school would go out in the middle of May on the hottest day of the school year so far.

Everyone in the classroom was feeling it as well. We had every window open and every fan was running on high. My clothes clung to my skin in dark splotches and every single one of us had drunk enough water to replenish the entirety of California. It wasn’t enough. The boys had started to all take off their shirts, and the girls were in their gym clothes. My best friend Fitz was in a tank top and the quarterback/popular guy, Lance Hunter, was basking in the limelight of all of the boy liking people who were into him.

“I know that it’s hot, but I’m pretty sure that shirtlessness is against school policy.” I whisper to Fitz.

“I’m pretty sure that literally nobody cares anymore, Jemma. I mean, even the love of your poor, nerdy, invisible life is joining in.” Fitz gestures to Skye who has stood to more easily relieve herself of the tank top that was sticking in all of the right places.

“Oh, my God she has abs.” I gulp. “Why is no one getting in trouble? I thought for sure that if a girl was to take off her shirt, the amin would be all… yep, there they are.” I nod knowingly.

“Ms.Coulson, please put your clothes back on. This is a clear violation of school dress code.” the teacher says in abject horror.

“So, are the vast majority of people in this room. Why aren’t you yelling at them too?” Skye questions with the quirk of an eyebrow, not making a single move to cover up her grey and purple fitted sports bra.

“You are the only shirtless female.” he points out.

“So I’ve noticed. I’m also the most comfortable female. Have you noticed that it’s kind of hot in here? At least all of my pretty parts are covered up. You can see the boys’ entire torsos. Why don’t you worry about them instead before one of those poor girls’ heart explodes?” she challenges and I can’t help but to girn. Skye is saying everything that I was thinking.

“They don’t have breasts, Ms.Coulson. I believe that we would all prefer that you cover yours.” he growls.

“I do have them covered, sir. That’s what the bra is doing. Maybe we should buy a few for the guys too.” she laughs.

“I don’t think that any of us care. She is showing less skin than Hunter is, and you haven’t said a word to him. Skye’s breasts aren’t your problem.” I add, apparently having completely lost my mind. Fitz’s jaw drops open and the teacher’s face goes purple. Normally, I am nothing but the most respectful student to have ever existed. This behavior was just ridiculous.

“Ms. Simmons, Ms,Coulson, I will see you both in detention on Saturday morning.” he announces.

“I agree with the little nerd hottie, I’m breaking the rules, too.” Hunter finally seems to understand what is going on. That, or he doesn’t want to see us lose the weekend’s soccer game.

“None of what you are showing is a reproductive organ.” Mr.Sitwell protests.

“Neither is Skye. Breasts are secondary reproductive organs.” I argue, this guy is supposed to be our science teacher and I am more than a little disappointed.

“Well, Hunter isn’t showing any of his secondary reproductive organs is he?” Mr.Sitwell asks, thinking that he has me backed into a corner.

He’s wrong.

“Yes, he si. As are you, along with every post-pubescent boy and man in this room, I believe that Jemma has completely defended my rights.” Skye concludes, shooting me a grateful look. I grin back, for some reason this has truly worn me out.

“I am going to confer with my colleagues. I will come back when I have decided what to do with you.” Sitwell also looks tired, but mostly very confused. I don’t blame him. I can have that effect on people. He takes his leave of us and I collapse back into my seat.

“Until then, all of you put clothes on.” he adds. The entire class groans.

“I can’t believe that you just did that. Are you insane?” Fitz asked, his expression somewhere between awe and fear. He pulls on his t-shirt reluctantly.

“Probably, at least a little bit insane.” I answer. I’m actually pretty sure that I have officially lost it. I nervously fold and unfold the paper fan that I made myself.

“Thanks for that, are you planning on being a lawyer when you grow up? You would certainly be good at it.” Skye plops down into a chair,, backwards, in front of Fitz and I who were dutifully going over their homework questions like they were all supposed to be doing.

“Uhm… you’re welcome, Skye. It was no biggie.” I answer, my eyes going wide as I look at her happily grinning in front of me.

“How did you know all of those things?” Skye asks, and I am surprised that she honestly wants to know.

“I… read a lot, I guess.” I answer, and it’s not a lie, but it’s also not the whole truth.

“She got it from Tumblr. Directly from Tumblr, actually.” Fitz outs me and I pout at him.

“I thought that it was actually really cool. You were awesome. I just wanted to thank you for defending me and my rights even though you knew that you were going to get in trouble right along with me. I really appreciate it. Plus, we get to have even more fun in detention on Saturday.” she teases. I can’t believe that this is actually happening. She’s so cute and so kind. Plus, I’m starting to think that she might actually be...flirting with me.

“Yeah, everyone knows that detentions is totally party central.” I chuckle, doing my best to flirt in return. It’s not really my strong suit.

“That depends completely upon who is there with me.” she grins and it’s probably the most charming thing that I have ever seen. That smile could probably get her wherever and whatever she wanted. It’s no wonder that she is so popular. “Tell me more about this stuff. I want to know how to handle this better next time. You’re smart, like the smartest person that I know, on top of being adorable. Best tutor ever.”

“Whatever you want to know.” I promise, and if she comes up with something that I don’t know, I’ll look it up.

\-----/////-----

“Good morning, Ms.Simmons, Ms.Coulson. Your assignment today is to write Mr.Sitwell an essay on appropriate behavior in the classroom. 1.000 words by the end of the day. Don’t talk and don’t move.” Ms.Hand instructs, handing us both a piece of paper and a pencil. She pops a pill into her mouth, sits back into her seat and promptly goes to sleep.

Immediately, she jumps up and turns around in her seat, straddling the back of her chair. I stare at her in horror, and she gives me that grin again.

“Don’t worry. That pill that she just took was an Ambien. She’ll be out for the next seven hours. I could stand on her desk and scream and she still won’t hear me.” Skye laughs. I really like her laugh. “Tell me more about feminism. I looked up the word.” SKye says, and her eyes are so alive and curious that I immediately give in.

“What do you want to know?” I ask, feminism is wide and vast as a subject in and of itself.

“What you told Sitwell. Where did all of that come from?” she looks right at me, and her gaze is piercing.

“Have you noticed that every school year, the dress code gets even weirder?”” I ask. 

She nods.

“You aren’t the only one. Discussions have grown everywhere about that. People are angry. Mostly, of course, the teenage girls.” I begin, just explaining as I can off of the top of my head. She was absorbing every word I said, and that made it even more easy to talk.

“You will notice that boys, in school, can wear almost whatever they want to and never get called out for it. Girls, on the other hand, get sent to the office to call or get some scrubs. We get called out for showing our shoulders or our collarbones or our knees, and that isn’t okay. The only explanation that they have for us is that we are a distraction. Who actually gets distracted by shoulders and knees? None of the guys that I know have filed any complaints.” I started ranting, realized that, and my face turned red.

“Anyway, this was my train of thought about yesterday.” I add.

“That actually pisses me off a little bit. We’re students, no teacher worth their salt should be looking at us in a way that we are able to distract them anyway.” She cocks her head to one side thoughtfully, and I appreciate the fact that she is actually taking me seriously. A lot of times when I talk about this stuff, people look at me like I’m crazy. Skye Coulson, just extraordinaire, seemed to be getting it though.

“I know, right?” was all that I could come up with to say. She was seriously surprising me and I could feel myself falling harder for her. “You usually manage to do a bang up job of distracting me anyway.” I say with a light laugh.

“Do I now? I never noticed.” Skye looks at me, intrigued.

“I know, I’m not the kind of girl that people notice unless it’s an academic awards ceremony. Your gaze just kind of skips over me. I don’t get noticed.” I explain. That fact doesn’t really bother me anymore, I’ve had a very long time to adjust to my seeming invisibility.

“That is a crime against the world itself! You’re awesome and everyone should know you. You’re smart, funny, and good to talk to.” Skye protests.

“I don’t mind, I like to stay under the radar. I’m bookish and I don’t like too much attention.” I shrug, picking at my fingernails. 

“That’s cool, I guess. It’ll get harder now that you’re one of my friends.” Skye teases.

“I can probably deal with that as well. As long as you’re there.” I tease in reply.

“So Dr.Simmons, how did you get so smart?” Skye asks me and I laugh at the question.

“I have never figured out a good way to answer that question I read a lot. I like science, and math, and I memorize things easily. Some say that I’m a genius, I could have graduated high school at twelve, but decided instead to continue anyways. I wanted to stay with Fitz.” I say and I hope that it doesn’t scare Skye away.

“That’s pretty cool.” she says, looking impressed.

“It’s alienating. Everyone looks at me differently, just because I know a lot of things that most people don’t. I can quote almost everything that I have ever read.” I say with a shrug. “That makes it hard to make friends.”

“I can imagine.” Skye replies thoughtfully, but I doubt that. Skye has a ton of friends and nearly everyone wants to either be her, or be with her. I am amongst the latter.

“No, really. I have a lot of people who like me, but almost only so I can do something for them. Everybody needs something out of me. It’s exhausting and makes it hard to trust.” Skye sighs and shoves all of her hair back from her face at one. “That’s why I’m starting to like you.” 

“Hmmm, I’ve been told that I’m too trusting.” I say thoughtfully. “I’ll almost always take a person at face value; take them at their word.”

‘That’s nice, but it could get you into trouble.” Skye replies.

“But constantly being suspicious and cautious is no way to be living your life either, is it? There isn’t any peace in that.” I argue. “I would rather get into trouble.” I laugh, knowing that I never really get into any trouble at all.

“Ah, come on, trouble can be fun.” Skye says.

“Trouble is what got me here, you know.” I point out, wondering again if this might be flirting.

“And look at all of the fun that we’re having.” Skye chuckles before a yawn. As I watch, she grabs her very sporty looking duffel bags and dumps out it’s contents onto the floor; grabbing her laptop out of the air before it had the chance to fall.

“Did you bring your entire bedroom with you?!” I ask with a laugh. Skye had arranged pillows and blankets in the floor to make a pallet bed. She responded with a grin and patted the pillow beside of her. With a nervous and awkward smile I settle under the blankets beside of her.

“Give me just a second to bypass the school’s internet blocks.” Skye mutters as her fingers fly across the keyboard skillfully. When she finishes whatever it is that she was doing, she logs onto Netflix. “So, what do you want to watch?”

“Did you just hack the school just so we could watch a movie?” I laugh, this girl is definitely something else.

“Erm, yeah. Of course I did. We still have… six hours left in here. What else did you think that we were going to do?” Skye asks teasingly.

“Our essays, maybe?” Like we are supposed to be doing?” I ask like it’s obvious.

“This is much more fun, don’t you think?” she’s been smiling so much that I have to wonder what could be going on to keep her that happy. Then I realize that I have been smiling a lot too and wonder if it might be for the same reasons. A girl can always hope.

“Yeah, probably so.” I sit back and watch, thinking more about everything that’s been happening than the actual movie playing. We are about twenty minutes in when Skye breaks her silence.

“Jemma, why do you think that no one notices you?” she asks, and I wonder about the thought process that might have brought her to that question.

“I don’t speak up often, I get good grades, I’m not very good at sports, I’m not outstandingly attractive, and I don’t have very many friends. I take a deep breath. “Why would anyone notice me.”

“You’re British for one, you’re incredibly smart, and you are outstandingly attractive.” Skye stares at me like I have completely lost my mind.

“I know that you aren’t a big fan.of standing out, but I have noticed you since the very first day of school.”

Now I’m the one who is thinking that she may have lost her mind.

“You’ve never said anything to me before.” I point out. I cannot believe what I am hearing. I honestly don’t understand that Skye has known who I was this whole time. I had always thought that I was nothing in comparison.

“You’re a little bit intimidating.” she says with a blush and a shrug.

“Now that I definitely don’t believe. You’re the most popular girl in school,, it’s my job to bow down and give homage.” I laugh with a snort.

“I don’t think about it like that. I think that it’s weird; so many people know me, just because I’m halfway decent at putting a ball into a hoop.” she snorts and turns onto her side to look at me.

“From what I’ve heard, you’re pretty damn good.” I reply with a shrug. “But why would you think that I’m intimidating?”

“You’re smarter than literally everyone. You carry yourself like you know that to be true. You have every right to to do that., but it makes you hard to approach.” Skye explains.

“I’m not really all that bad, though. Am I?”

“Nah, I think that you’re pretty chill, Simmons.” Skye teases me and turns back to hit play on the movie.

\-----/////-----

Skye snores, and she is very much a cuddler. At some point during Mean Girls, she had grabbed my arm and refused to go. It was pretty much adorable. It finally felt like we were really and truly friends. I liked it, but I still couldn’t help but to want more. I noticed still, her warm brown eyes and full lips and wondered about what it might feel like to kiss her. The definition of her arms catches my eye and I wonder what it would be like to have them wrapped around me, pulling me in. This is probably going to come back to bite me in the ass.

Skye wakes up when Regina gets hit by the bus, and releases my arm. She brushes her hair back from her face with her fingers in that way that drives me nuts. I can’t help but to feel like, after two days of being her friend, I am only falling for her more. She grins at me in that manner that she always does, like she’s surprised that I’m still here, and apologizes for falling asleep.

“It’s no biggie, I was thinking about napping as well.” I answer her apology with a shrug and choose a third movie.

“I was thinking that, if you don’t mind, you could maybe come to my house later on and help me with Pre-Calculus homework? I’m seriously struggling and I just need someone to…”

“Yeah, Skye, of course I will.” I interrupt her. This happens a lot with my friends, and usually I find it very aggravating, but with Skye I doubt that that will become an issue. I feel like I would enjoy sitting around and watching grass with Skye Coulson.

“Thanks, Jems.” 

“Maybe you could take me to one of your ball-games in return.” I ask, looking for even another excuse to go and hang out with Skye even more. I could be considered a little bit desperate at this point.

“I would actually very much enjoy that, and you probably need to get out more as well.” Skye gives me a look and I gasp in surprise.

“Not cool, bro!” I smack her arm and she jumps up to tickle me. I roll away and cough a few times and realize that Skye still has both of my hands pinned above my head. She’s breathing hard, and searching my face. I can’t take the eye contact anymore and look away. Skye lets me go and returns to her laptop.

“Um...yeah, I’ll take you.” she says awkwardly.

“Okay, good.” I answer just as oddly. We return our attention to the movie that’s playing, and I try to shake the moment from my mind.

\-----/////-----

“So, you want to meet up tomorrow?” I ask, wanting to see her again quickly.

“That sounds pretty good. My place or yours?” Skye asks with a flirty tilt to her mouth. I smile in return.

“Mine works.” My house will be empty, and I won’t need to bring anything over. I generally have everything that I will ever need in my bedroom, to the point that I could stay in there for a week and never have to come out.

“Alright. That sounds great.” Skye looks down at me and studies me with that same look on her face that she had gotten earlier. It’s the same one that had stolen my breath away. “I guess that I will have to look forward to seeing you then. Until tomorrow.”

“Until tomorrow.” I reply with a half smile..

“Bye.”

“See you.” I answer, pulling my things together and placing my finished, passive aggressive, essay on the still sleeping Ms.Hand’s desk.

I escape my intense hold on Skye’s eyes to my mother’s car.

“I just got paged to the Emergency Room, do you want to come with, or me drop you off at the house?” my surgeon mum asks.

“I’ll go with you and help out in the lab. I would get bored staying at home anyway. Do you mind if a friend comes over to study tomorrow? She’s been struggling in math and thinks that I can help.” I ask, knowing already that she will say yes.

“Of course, honey. It’s no big deal.”

\-----/////-----

I woke up late and got everything ready about 25 mins. before SKye was supposed to get there. I cleaned up my room twice, changed clothes thrice, and got snacks ready and set up on the desk in my bedroom. I tend to be very organized, and can get worse about it when I’m nervous. Both of the parental units were at the hospital working, probably already in an operating room somewhere , elbow deep into a chest cavity or intestines. You could never really tell. I had gotten very independant and very used to being home alone by an early age. I was good with cooking, cleaning, and keeping the house in shape.

I was in the bathroom, retying my ponytail, when the doorbell rang.

“Coming!” I yell and race down the stairs to meet Skye., taking a deep breath before opening it.

“Hey.” I say. I was prepared when it came to the house and the math, but i had yet to think up an opening line. Instead, I just sort of stood there and stared awkwardly.

“Hi.” Skye replied. Skye looked completely comfortable just standing there gazing back at me.

“Oh, Sorry. Please come in.” I invite her, showing her where to put her shoes.

“Thanks.” She smiles at me softly. It’s not the big grin that i have gotten used to, but it’s totally adorable, all the the same.

“Thank you for doing this for me, Jemma.” Skye gives me a meaningful look.

“Oh, it’s no big. A lot of people want me to tutor them, I just decided to make an exception for you since you love to put a ball through a hoop as you put it.” I shrug and ramble. “My room is up this way.” I was working on learning how to shut up. It hasn’t been going so well thus far.

“You certainly are very neat, aren’t you Jemma?” she asks me.

“Yeah, I tend to lean towards organization.” I shrug, flopping down into my desk chair and grabbing a bowl of popcorn.

Skye glanced around and read the titles of the books on my shelves. If felt as though she were looking into my life itself, as though I were baring my soul to her. I felt mildly violated. Not really in a bad way either. It felt more like Skye might be about to find out more about me than she were bargaining for. I don’t know that I really mind.

“So, where are your parents?” She asks, turning to look at me. All of a sudden, it felt quite similar to an interrogation. Have I been set up? Pranked? My suspicious, cynical nature, rears its ugly head.

“Work. They are both surgeons at the hospital. Neither of them get to be home often.” I answer her.

“That sucks, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been used to this for a very long time. It’s okay.” I reply with a noncommittal shrug.

“Still, it has to get lonely hanging out at home alone so often.” Skye points out, and she is actually completely right. I do get lonely regularly, but for some reason I don’t want to appear weak to her.

“I have Fitz, he keeps me company a lot of the time.” I refute.

“Ah, yes. The boyfriend.” she says in a voice that is really almost a grumble.

“Fitz isn’t my boyfriend. He has a thing for Hunter, actually.” I scoff. We get that a lot and are usually okay with it, but from Skye it is a little bit irritating.

“Oh...sorry, I didn’t know.” She apologizes, but only looks a little intrigued.. I can’t help but to smirk a little bit and reach into my desk drawer for worksheets.

“Are you ready to get started?” I put on my readers and Skye looks like she might actually pass out.

“I did not realize that you wore glasses.”

\-----/////-----

Skye’s grades start to go up, and quickly so. As it turns out, I’m a rather good teacher. We get close over the course of all of this, and the study sessions evolve into weekly study sessions/sleepovers. Skye snores so I never get any sleep, but I don’t mind.

“All right, we’ve got a big test coming on so I want you to actually pay attention for once, okay?” I ask, a month or two in.

“But I’ve already gotten all of the way up to a ‘C’, Jems! Why can’t we just leave it alone?” she begs.

“A ‘C’ isn’t good enough to get you into a good college.” I argue.

“I can hack into the gradebook and change it all.” Skye shrugs and gives me the puppy dog eyes. I sigh heavily.

“That’s illegal and wrong.” I point out.

“Whatever.” she’s giving me that look again, the one that I can’t read, like she’s looking for something in my face desperately, and not finding it. I don’t know why, but whatever it I want it for her. HEr eyes are almost half closed and I can’t stop myself from staring into them. It seems like we can hold on other's gazes for years until I realize that now our noses are grazing against one another and our foreheads are touching. I can feel her breath on my cheek. I can feel her take a deep breath and I lean in and catch her lip with my own.

She seems startled at this and I begin to think that I may have made a terrible mistake. Then, I feel the brush of her arm around my neck and waist, and her heartbeat pick up in her chest. It’s almost desperate, her return, nad I pick up my pace to keep up. My hands are gripping her t-shirt, and the comforter on my bed. I take a deep, trembling breath and Skye shudders, opening her eyes and looking into mine. I expect words, a ‘whoa’. or an apology or anything. Instead she hugs me, and I let her. She lets me loose a little bit more, but her arms are still holding me in, her breathing still heavy. She lays back and kicks off her shoes, pulling me down with her. I let her. She falls asleep, holding me close, and I let her.

\-----/////-----

I wake up an hour later alone, hugging a pillow with a note stuck to it.

We can talk later. I’ve got to run. - Skye

This told me next to nothing of what I want to know. I want to know what she is thinking, how she’s feeling, and that kiss. I need to know more about it all. Does it meant that she likes me? It has to mean that she is at least attracted to me, unless she was just caught up in the moment. I don’t know if I would be able to handle that.

Are you still up for taking me to the game tomorrow.? I text her.   
Yeah, we can talk then. I need the time to think. TTYL. she answers almost immediately.

I’ve been seeing Skye nearly every day within the past month. We’ve become attached at the hip almost. WE know one another through and through. She understands that I am lonely to my core and I know that she is afraid of letting her adoptive father down. She’s scared that if she isn’t constantly amazing, that she will disappoint him and that he won’t want her. I understand her. However, I am not getting this. She kissed me, napped with me and left. Sure, I started it, but she was most definitely into it.

I’m a patient girl, though. I can wait until the afternoon tomorrow.

\-----/////-----

By the next morning, on the way to school, I was something of a mess. I had redone my hair, makeup, and outfit several times. If this was the day that we were to become an official item, then I wanted to look nice. If I was about to get my heart ripped out of my chest and stomped on several times then I was going to look good doing that too. It’s easy to guess which option I am rooting for too.

My heart was beating so hard that I thought that I might vomit. I was almost terrified, and I was almost elated My leg bounced up and down all of the way though my first period class. My eyes probably shot laser into the back of Skye’s head all of the way through my second period. My heart itself felt like it was growing and trying to climb its way out of my body. I sat there wanting to throw myself into her arms and ask her to kiss me again, and did not hear a word that came out of Mr.Sitwell’s mouth.

“And that is why, thanks to some choice comments made in this room and an essay that made me rethink my entire belief system, I will be stepping down as a teacher. A substitute will be taking over until a suitable replacement can be found. I am sorry for any inconveniences and for the other day as well. Especially you two, Ms.Coulson and Ms.Simmons.” Mr. Sitwell announced and apologized.

“I cannot believe that that just happened.” Fitz says looking awestruck. “He had to have been talking about your essay. Skye didn’t write one.”

“I made him quit?!” my eyes go wide as the former teacher excuses himself. “It wasn’t even a good essay. It was mostly just meanness. I gave him a piece of my mind is all.”

“When you get angry, Jemma, lives changes.” Fitz snorts.

“I never understand half of what you say, you know that right?” I groan. The bell rings and we leave class. I had forgotten all about the incident with Skye. Mr.Sitwell quitting was too horrifying. I sit stunned in my classes for the rest of the day.

“You’re kinda scaring me now, Jems.” Skye says while we climb into her car. She had saved money for ages to get it. “I had thought you would be in full-on interrogation made by now.”

“I might have ruined that man’s life. He quit because of me. I was too mean in my paper.” I’m debating the merits of breaking down and sobbing for a good long while.

“He made his own choice. He’s a grown-ass man and you’re an itty-bitty teenage girl. He is responsible for his own self.” Skye insists. She hasn’t even started the car yet. She’s just looking at me worriedly. I’m staring out of the window trying not to have a complete meltdown.

“Come on, Skye.You have a game to get to.” I order.

“Okay, but you’re coming home with me, after. I don’t want you to have to be home alone tonight.” Skye says, starting the car. She knows that I hate that. I get scared in my big empty house when no one else is in it.

“Alright.” I’m just glad that she doesn’t hate me.

\-----/////-----

Skye looks like she’s dancing on the court, her ball in her hands as she tries to get around the girls who are blocking her shot. It’s like magic how the ball finds its way into the net after leaving her possession. It’s no longer as surprising to me how every little thing that she does is magic. I still don’t get it but I am no longer surprised. She’s beautiful out there, almost flying, about to achieve take off. Her ponytail bounces when she accepts a pass, and she somehow has the time to flash the crowd a grin before shooting. The ball remains airborne for what feels like years but was actually only around three seconds. I was the only one with complete confidence in the ball’s ability to end up where it needed to be, or in Skye’s ability to get it there. I was no longer sure which was magic.

Skye had her own personal entourage at the game. Her own cheering sections with signs and everything. I always made a point of not sitting with them. The screaming fangirls and boys had a tendency to be rather obnoxious. Their sky puns were truly terrible on top of everything else. Like the drooling wasn’t bad enough on its own.

It was me that she looked to after the game winning basket and I returned her smile immediately. The look was brief but I felt like it meant something. After, she turned to her teammates and punched the air. They surround her and she disappears into a swarm of bodies all wearing the same outfit for a while. I’ve never been so excited over a sport in my life. It got a lot more interesting once I figured out the physics behind it and I saw the way Skye’s body moved. I tried to explain that to Skye but she very impolitely asked me not to ruin her game for her. I rolled my eyes and shut up. My phone buzzed and I looked out at the court to see Skye make eye contact again.

Meet me in the locker room. I climb down the bleachers and sneak off.

“That was a brilliant match, Skye.” I laugh breathlessly, having screamed my voice away.

“I do my best.” she answers and pulls me into a changing room. SHe corners me and wraps a hand around the back of my neck, roughly kissing my lips and gently cupping my cheek. The contrast stood out starkly in my mind until I lost my ability to think.

I blamed it all on the adrenaline, the euphoria of the wind, hormones or anything, but oh God, I prayed for this to be real. I melted under this girl’s hands, her lips, and the feeling of her skin blushing against mine. I breathed her in, my hand on her chest and over her shoulder. I could faint, I could collapse, I could jump dimensions or fly if I was asked to, I swear.

“That was… unexpected, to say the least.” I comment once she has pulled away.

“Not exactly the plan on my past, either. I”m sorry, I had intended to actually talk to you first, then the kissing. I was still too hyped up.” Skye pants and runs a hand through her hair.

“Oh, I’m not complaining. I expected talking and my heart getting broken. THis is definitely the preferable turn of events. ‘A’ plus for you, Ms.Coulson, on all of… well, everything.” I’m still trying to find my footing. My mind is a tumble really.

“Bullshit, no one with a brain would ever turn you down, for Pete’s sake. You have had a kind of effect on me that I didn’t bargain for. I needed a moment to process it all after that detention.. Thank you, Dr.Simmons.”

I hug her in response.

“More kissing later, okay?” I ask when she leans in for it. “You smell terrible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Skimmons and sports


	32. Coffee

It had been ten years since Daisy had retired from SHIELD and I was panicked to meet her again. She had avoided New York for that much time as well and I hadn’t seen her since. It’s pained me a little, seeing how I had never gotten over that awful crush on her. I daydream still, about our days on the Bus sometimes, when she was Skye instead of Daisy. I had loved those days back when everything was more normal. Or at least a little more normal. Normal evaporated as soon as I joined SHIELD.

Daisy had gone into a tailspin after a lost fight. She had almost lost us and it was kind of her fault but not. We had been targeted as revenge for a case that she had broken. It was heartbreaking for all of us, but mostly just me when she had never come back. It had bothered me a lot and Coulson walked around for days looking like somebody had kicked his puppy. Or had kicked Lola, whichever was worse.

So, maybe that was why I felt like I was going to vomit. I don’t know if I’m scared or if I’m just still in love. Ten years is enough for me to be over it, right? No one holds onto a crush for that long, do they? Maybe it’s just me. I never even found out whether or not she felt the same way. It’s bothered me a bit ever since.

“Hey, am I late? Have you been waiting long?” I ask, when I see her sitting there and waiting with a coffee hanging loosely in one hand.

“Jems, yeah no. I was early. I got a bit panicked there for a minute and got here like a half hour before now just to calm myself down.” Daisy says with an almost smirk on her face.

“I’m glad to be seeing you again. I was starting to think that I would never get to see that smirk again. I’ve missed it.” I say, feeling an ache in my chest and a knot in my throat beginning to loosen.

“I’ve missed you too.” Daisy says rather whimsically. “I have thought about you a lot over the years.”

“And I you…”

“It’s funny, I had thought that I was over that awful crush on you. It has been killing me ever since then that I had never told you.” Daisy says sheepishly.

“It was even funnier that I had never gotten over my own on you.” I watch the grin cross her face and seeing her lean across the table, her mouth covers mine and the world starts to spin in just the same way that I had imagined over and over for the past ten years.


	33. Better Off Dead

He jumped in. That’s the excuse that you tell yourself. You just know that you would have gotten the girl if it had been you. You know that you’re really just kidding yourself. She chose him. She loves him. You know that you have to accept that and move on. You love them both, though in different ways, so you step aside.

You have a lot to distract yourself with. You throw yourself into training both your mind and body. You invite yourself to go along on every mission. You decide to make yourself into a mission machine with no emotion and you ignore the worried looks coming in from every direction. You are Daisy Johnson now. You are the hero, Quake. Your hair was the least important part of you to have changed.

When the Director invites you to help find and train InHumans, you accept. Your team is surprised but you don’t know why. It should have been obvious that you weren’t happy there with them anymore. It wasn’t their fault, it was your own. You could never move on and that made the bunker not feel like a home anymore. You felt like an intruder. Your little group didn’t feel like home anymore.

Jemma seems to take it the worst and that stings a little. Fitz looks at you with understanding his eyes and an arm around her waist. You leave a letter with May in the case of your death. Maybe you had known that it was coming on some level. You were lost on mission with the Black Widow during the Civil War, you were as close to a protege as she had ever had. She was the one who delivered the news to your old team. Fitz was the one to hold Jemma while she cried.

May gave Jemma the letter during a private moment, Natasha standing unnoticed in a dark corner. Jemma had never know, and would probably go forever without knowing the depths of your feelings for her. When she returned to you, Natasha told you everything, just like she had promised to, with no sugarcoating. She awkwardly allowed you to cry on her shoulder.

You had become a part of a black-ops team led by Natasha Romanoff. No one knew that you were alive. You doubted that anyone even cared. It broke your heart but it was necessary. You were better off dead..


	34. Damsel in Distress

Nothing can escape hell, they said, and Jemma was inclined to agree. Her arms were bound behind her back and a gag had been thrust roughly into her mouth. It was dark and cold, even a little damp wherever Jemma was being kept. Her shoulders were starting to hurt from the uncomfortable angle her elbows and wrists were held in. Hydra hadn’t been at all gentle with her.  
Jemma’s eyes ached from straining in the dark, her mouth was dry, and she was starting to really need to pee. The mixture of anger and fear in her abdomen left her nauseated, squirming, and ready for anything. What she was not prepared for was the first wave of earthquakes. The thought that it may be Daisy glimmered in the back of her mind. However, Jemma had barely been gone for an hour and they probably hadn’t even realized that she was gone yet.  
She did her best to calm her mind as much as she could and think practically. Jemma couldn’t always wait on someone to come and rescue her. Right now, Jemma needed to be her own hero. Another quake struck and the young biochemist was hit with one of her many brilliant ideas. The next piece of shale that fell from the walls landed right near her hands and with just a bit of squirming she managed to get it into her grip.  
Even though it bit into her wrists and she could feel the warm, wet, and sticky blood drip down into her hands; Jemma didn’t stop. She knew that she couldn’t stop or she would never be able to get herself free. Her muscles burned as she forced herself though the pain. She bit her lip until it bled; keeping herself from screaming.  
As soon as her hands were were free, she set to work on the duct tape that held her ankles together. It was a lot easier than her wrists and she was able to keep from cutting herself. Jemma found a larger piece of the same kind of shale, cut off the bottom strip of her blouse and wrapped it around the base into a kind of handle. She gripped with all of the strength that she had left in her small body. Her make-shift shank was small but was capable of major damage if she needed to.  
Jemma crept slowly out of her cell, blade at the ready. Her entire body was one giant ache, but with all of that adrenaline in her veins, Jemma couldn’t feel it. She was wired and she felt ready for anything. When the guard turned a corner, he didn’t even see her coming. He was dead before he could even get a syllable out.  
The next corner that Jemma rounded ended in a pile of rubble. Another quake hit and the rubble moved. The adrenaline drained from her body as she tried to ready herself for whatever might be coming next. She sagged against the far wall, trying to get some of her energy back up, but instead she felt her eyes slipping closed. It was hard to believe her eyes when the rock lifted itself up from the ground and began neatly arranging themselves so that a dark figure could come through.  
“Jemma!?” came Daisy’s voice as Jemma attacked, her shale knife stopping inches away from Daisy’s precious carotid artery.  
“Hey there, Jems, I kind of need that blood to stay in my body or you’ll have one dead girlfriend.” Daisy’s grip doesn’t slacken on Jemma’s wrist until she has removed the shank from Simmons’s iron grip. “This was supposed to be a rescue mission, but it looks to me like you’ve taken care of all of the rescuing yourself. I should’ve known that you wouldn’t be a typical damsel in distress.”  
“You can rescue me the rest of the way. I’m a wee bit tired.” Jemma allows, letting Daisy pick her up and carry her bridal style to safety. She buried her face in Daisy’s shirt when all of the light outdoors became too much.  
“Remind me every now and then that you aren’t a damsel in distress. You are a brave, badass mother fucker, who doesn’t need some dopey, love-struck, wannabe heroine to save her.” Daisy murmured, using her abilities to cheat a little a getting Jemma through the remains of the building that she had brought down. She may have gone a little over-board in her rage mode upon discovering Jemma’s abduction.  
“She asked nicely.” Jemma murmurs softly into Daisy’s chest.  
“Who did what now? Who asked nicely, Jemma?” Daisy looks mildly alarmed.  
“Your mother asked nicely… you know, for me to fuck her.” Jemma says and falls asleep/passes out in the time that it takes for Daisy to process what she heard.  
Daisy roared with laughter as a medical team raced to meet them outside of the QuinJet.  
“Make sure you get a head CT. She’s never going to believe that she said that… Oh, God.” Daisy kissed Jemma’s forehead and sent her on her way. “I love that woman.”


	35. Watching and Dancing

Daisy was escorting Jemma to the Walgreens mid-mission on a snack gathering mission of the highest importance. The team was fresh off of a particularly stressful fight that had drained the teams’ Inhumans physically and emotionally. They had already obliterated every crumb of food on the Bus. Jemma had offered to do the shopping, but no one had wanted to allow her to go alone. Especially not at two o’clock in the morning. 

Out of everyone on their team, Jemma always appeared to be the most vulnerable. Daisy and Fitz were likely the only ones who could see the depth of Jemma’s strength. Daisy doubted if Jemma had an idea. She had known for a long time. Daisy had long been able to see it there in the doctor’s eyes.

“I’ll be here. Yell if you need me.” Daisy said, sitting on a chair near the front door with a wince.

“I’ll try to be quick. You really should be back home resting. I would have been fine on my own.” Jemma replied with a rather aggravated expression.

“I didn’t want to risk it. I know you are a fully capable and well-trained SHIELD agent but there is also a reason we are sent out in pairs… to watch one another’s backs. However, my back is still really worn out, so I’m going to watch yours from here, okay?”

Daisy’s grin was tired but impish in a manner that reminded Jemma of Skye. The mischievous young tech wiz whose loneliness ran deeper than any of them could imagine, the girl who hacked SHIELD for kicks and made a family out of the most eclectic group of secret agents and scientists ever formed. Jemma missed that girl every day, but she had grown to love the Daisy edition as well. She was new and different but she was still the same person in the ways that mattered most. Jemma knew she should have realized the truth sooner. 

“Okay, sit tight.” Jemma sighed and patted Daisy’s shoulder gently. “I’ll pick up some heavy duty ibuprofen while I’m at it.”

Daisy did her best to not watch the rhythmic sway of Jemma’s hips as she walked away. They were _there_ and very hard to look away from. She was very over her crush on Jemma. Daisy _hated_ her crush on Jemma. It made things much more odd than necessary. 

She tried her best to keep her giggles to herself as she watched Jemma dance through the aisles of CVS. Some trashy pop song was playing over the speakers and Daisy hated it. She loved watching Jemma though. The scientist seemed relaxed and happy for once. Daisy didn’t care she couldn’t dance or that the song was pretty much a garbage fire; she was enjoying seeing the girl she loved enjoying herself.


	36. Growth and Glasses

Jemma had loved Daisy Johnson since they met. It was so clear Daisy didn’t have anyone and it was just as clear to Jemma as it had been to Agent Coulson that their little group would be a perfect fit. She hadn’t had a specific name for her feelings at that point, but they were definitely intense. She had known immediately she wanted to be sure the younger woman would be okay. It didn’t take very long for those feelings to turn into love of some variety. It took a lot more time for Jemma to realize her feelings were of the romantic variety. 

Skye, as she was known then, was too overwhelmed the first few months with them to really notice anything else. Jemma stood out though. The fast-talking doctor seemed completely at home in her lab… even if it were a flying one. Somehow Jemma managed to make The Bus feel like a home for Skye. From then on, no matter how they grew or changed (names included) Skye/Daisy’s home was where Dr. Jemma Simmons was.

Everything didn’t necessarily come easily to them, though. At each turn, some new enemy or crisis came up. Skye’s very heart itself seemed to take a beating. Jemma went through her share of tribulations as well. They were the hardest years of Skye’s life, even after all she had been through before coming to SHIELD. The ragtag group slowly changed from a handful of individuals to a team and then to a family. Skye learned she could rely on these people, a gift she had never experienced before. It was everything that she hadn’t known she needed.

Jemma felt honored to be able to watch Skye grow. She didn’t believe she had ever met anyone as strong. Jemma was pretty sure she had never been as concerned for someone as she was for Skye either. She watched from behind the scenes or in her lab as Skye become Daisy and Daisy become Quake. Jemma had never been quite so proud.   
“Jemma, what are you thinking so hard about? I can hear the gears in your brain cranking from here.” Daisy chuckled from her side of the bed.

Jemma turned onto her side to meet Daisy’s eyes with a soft smile, a hint of laughter in her eyes. “I’ve just been thinking about how much you’ve grown since we first met. I’m proud of you Daisy.” Her voice was sincere and her tone low; the same voice that always meant Jemma was delivering a serious proclamation.

“I’m proud of you too, Jemma. You went from impressive to astonishing in the blink of an eye. What brought all of this on?” Daisy asked with a curious look. About half of Jemma’s face was covered by the pillow, but she had a gentle look in her eyes that Daisy didn’t recognize.

“I just woke up thinking. We were totally different people five years ago. Isn’t it interesting though, that the person that I was then, was also in love with the person that you were then. I like to think that our love… in whatever form it took, grew right along with us. We are parallel to ourselves in a way.”

Daisy had to chuckle. Jemma’s mind never failed to amaze her, and she always learned something new. She hadn’t seen this romantic side to Simmons before. The constant surprises were one of Daisy’s favorite aspects of their relationship.

“You’re going to bend your glasses laying on them like that.” Daisy scolds equally softly, reaching forward to remove them on Jemma’s behalf. “I would say the two of us have been refined by fire. It hurt like hell while it was happening and I’ll be the first to admit I was scared shitless the vast majority of the time, but we came out the better for it. I like who we have become, Jemma. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Me either. Even all our scars are precious to me now.” Jemma ran the tips of her fingers along the raised skin behind Daisy’s ear where the Kree ability inhibitor had been. ”They remind me of all of the things I have to be grateful for. We’ve survived so much and should never take anything for granted..”

“Well, I know for a fact I would have a ton more scars if not for you.” Daisy laughed. “I do tend to get injured a lot… kind of an occupational hazard. Being placed into your expert care makes it a lot easier to deal with, though.”

“I don’t care how good my care is, it would be much better if you didn’t go around getting yourself seriously injured. Spending time with you just isn’t the same when I’m trying to save your life.” Jemma’s lips quirked up, but she didn’t seem to find it half as amusing as Daisy did.

“You know what I meant.” Daisy scolded. “I don’t nearly die on a regular basis because it’s fun for me you know. The majority of the time I just want to keep everyone around me as safe as possible. Yo-Yo and I have talked about how being the powered people on the team makes us feel a little more responsible for the rest of you. Power and responsibility, right?”

“You were that way even before Terrigenesis, Daisy. Since I’ve known you, you’ve put the rest of the team before yourself. It was one of the things I first loved about you. You were strong and beautiful as all hell long before your abilities.

“You are always telling me things like that, but I don’t think you’ve ever realized how much it means to me.” Daisy’s cheeks were pink and her smile crooked. “Still, Jemma, you’re cheesy as all hell. Especially for being a Brit.”

“You and your British stereotypes.” Jemma scoffed. “I need to drag you home and show you the real Jolly ol’ England.”

“Everything I know, I’ve learned from you, Fitz, and Hunter. You only have yourselves to blame.” Daisy jibed back playfully.

“You are very lucky I love you so much, young lady.” Jemma chuckled. “Please take everything Lance Hunter has ever said about my homeland with a bucket-full of salt…. Actually, everything you have ever heard him say in his entire life. All of it.”

Daisy couldn’t help but to laugh. Making fun of Hunter was one of the team’s very favorite pastimes. She pushed up onto her forearms and turned to look at Jemma full in the face. Daisy gently finger-combed a few stray hairs out of Jemma’s face as she studied the other girl’s eyes. She didn’t want to even think about how her own hair looked.

It was nearly eleven a.m. but neither of the women had made any moves to get out of bed. They never got to have any kind of time off so they had to take full advantage while they could. It was ten degrees below outdoors and the bed was perfectly soft and warm. Daisy was more than content just to be where Jemma was. This was perfection. The smaller woman pushed up to meet Jemma’s eyes with a happy little grin.

“You’re right. I might just be the luckiest woman on this planet or any other. Somehow you fell in love with me and I you and everything became so much more wonderful and terrifying. I have these Inhuman abilities to help me keep you safe. I don’t think I could be more lucky.” Daisy leaned forward and pressed in to kiss Jemma softly. “Every morning that I get up and find your glasses for you I remember just how lucky I am.”

“My glasses?” Jemma asked with a surprised look, not quite understanding what Daisy meant.

“Yeah, the first few times I stayed over, I got really tickled watching you trying to find them. Then, it kind of became my duty to help and hand them to you. I really value that part of my morning.” Daisy’s smile was nostalgic and betrayed so much feeling Jemma couldn’t help but to tear up a little.”

“I love you too, you idiot.”


	37. Common Area

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Simmons are both kicked out of their dorm rooms and end up having to sleep in the common area...smut happens

Skye was doing her absolute best to fall asleep. She had been banished from her dorm room by her roommate. It wasn’t an uncommon inconvenience, though Skye sure didn’t appreciate the experience. Still, it wasn’t the worst place Skye had slept. The couch was hard on her back but no worse than a park bench or the floor of her van.

Skye was nearly asleep when the door to the common area thumped closed. Skye could have cried she was so tired.

“I am so sorry.” Jemma whispered. “I just had too many books at one time and I lost my balance and I know it’s really late and… I’m rambling again, aren’t I?”

Skye did her best not to find it adorable or aggravating and failed on both counts. She nodded in reply and collapsed back into her pillows. “Just a little bit, yeah.” she answered, despite her exhaustion.

“What are you doing trying to sleep out here anyway?” Jemma asked, taking a seat on the loveseat.

“My roommate wanted some alone time with her boytoy so I got kicked out for the night.” Skye replied. “She does that to me every now and again.”

“Not exactly fair, now is it?” Jemma chuckled lightly. “I guess that makes me your roommate for the night. My roommate has a ‘past-ten-lock-the-door’ policy.”

“That’s not fair either.” Skye replied sleepily. “I’ll move to the chair and you can take the couch. I have a feeling that I have stolen your spot.”

Skye stood up on shaky legs and tottered past Jemma with her pillow in tow.

“Turn off the lights when you have tucked in.” she requested, squirming to make herself more comfortable.

“No way. You were here first, fair and square. I refuse.” Jemma said stubbornly. “You take the couch and I’ll take the chair.”

“I won’t do it. I can share the couch with you, but I won’t make you sleep in the chair.” Skye stood, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders to face Jemma down.

“Fine then. Be that way. I’ll just sleep on the floor and the couch will _stay_ empty.” Jemma squared up in front of Skye despite the height difference.

“You sure this is the way you want this to go down? I’m not going to sleep in the chair while you are on the floor. There’s no reason for us to both be miserable when there is a perfectly comfy couch right there.” Skye stepped closer and argued back.

Jemma realized if they were the same height they would be nose-to-nose. Her breaths came in short gasps because she was forced face to face with this beautiful woman. Skye’s eyes were a smooth brown, deep, and revealed a fire deep inside. Jemma felt as though maybe she could reach that fire if she tried hard enough. She wanted to feel that heat. 

Skye searched Jemma’s eyes in return, enjoying the little British woman’s outrage. She wasn’t smirking so much as… appreciating the sight in front of her. Skye decided Jemma Simmons must have been pretty worked up before she entered the common area. Jemma grabbed the hem of Skye’s t-shirt in tight, white-knuckled fists. Skye’s breath got caught like a stone in her throat and Jemma noticed.

She caught Skye by her lapels, dragging the taller woman down to her level to kiss. From the get-go, it was the hottest kiss Jemma had ever known. She let go of one side of her collar to loop an arm around Skye’s neck; dragging her down even further. Skye got tired of bending her neck and quickly scooped Jemma up as though she didn’t weigh a thing. Jemma locked her legs tightly around Skye’s waist...doing her best not to make Skye’s job any harder and tilted her head so she would have an easier time nipping at her neck.

Jemma gasped as Skye lowered her to the couch, her brown eyes hot as they bored into Jemma’s. She clutched a handful of Skye’s hair in one fist and held her close. Jemma growled low in her chest and bit at Skye’s collarbone. Skye pulled back and drew her thumb along Jemma’s cheekbone, her breaths coming hard and heavy. Jemma could feel that gaze somewhere deep and foreign in her center.

“Are you sure about this?” Skye asked in a gravelly voice Jemma hadn’t heard from Skye before.

“Uhm, yes. Definitely.” Jemma said with the deepest voice she had ever heard from herself either. “Knock yourself out, babe,”

Skye eased Jemma’s shirt up and over her head slowly, no longer rushing. She wanted to take her time and witness every feeling and emotion to cross Jemma’s face.

“You are so beautiful.” Skye sighed, tossing the garment off to the side and simply sitting to straddle Jemma’s hips. She could feel her pulse all throughout her body, from her face to the tips of her fingers. The words were barely an exhale but Jemma felt them all the way down her spine.

Jemma arched off of the couch as Skye continued to make a trail down her body. Skye did so carefully, enjoying all of the little sounds Jemma made, being as careful as possible not to miss a thing. She had been admiring Jemma Simmons from afar since she had first seen the other woman in the building they shared. As far as Skye was aware, Jemma was or had been in a relationship with Leo Fitz, an engineering major. It was funny because before having been told otherwise, Skye would have had them pegged for siblings. Simmons had laughed for ages at Skye’s inability to tell the difference between an English and a Scottish accent.

Jemma knew she needed to keep her voice down, but found it nearly impossible. Her blunt fingernails dug into Skye’s strong arms. She didn’t want to wake anyone and have someone walk in on them. Skye’s mouth was hot and strong against her. She grabbed the nearest pillow to muffle the groans she couldn’t hold back.

Skye pulled it away and tossed it back, not caring where it might land.

“Let me watch you.”

Jemma nearly screamed out loud but decided better, leaning forward to sink her teeth into Skye’s shoulder instead. Needless to say, they ended up sharing the couch that night.


	38. Our Song

“Jemma! Jemma! It’s our song!” Skye half-squeaked as the two girls headed out in the car through a small English town whose name Skye couldn’t remember. 

The two had been on a week-long vacation, during which Jemma had insisted Skye join her in England for a ‘meet-the-parents’. She had half used the trip as an excuse to visit her parents and half as an excuse to spend the time with her girlfriend; who had no one to visit during their off time. Skye had been her usual brilliant and charming self.Jemma had needed some cunning work to talk her parents into liking Skye after all of her ‘charm’. She had face-palmed so many times she got a headache.

“Skye, darling, in what world is this our song?” Jemma asked with a half-disgusted groan.

“This is the very first song we ever danced to.” Skye says by way of explanation. “You remember when I had to go undercover at a HYDRA party as your date because none of the guys were believable. The most criminal thing at that party was their taste in music.” shaking her head.

“Okay, but it’s terrible. I hate it and refuse to accept it.” Jemma said in a tone that was half-whine and half-humor.

“Nope, you get what you get and you don’t get to pick.” Skye said, humming under her breath as Jemma drove, a mild look of disgust on her face. “We did have a very good time at that party, though. The bad guys do seem to know how to have a good time.”

“No one there believed you were with me, love. I was too busy being in awe of you. It was really more like you were dancing and I stood there in shock and admiration.” Jemma scoffed, reacting without looking away from the road to grasp Skye’s hand. In response, the younger woman kissed the back of her hand.

“You astonish me every day, my dearest. I just make a very good distraction when I need to. My awesome power just distracted you as well.” Skye teased, squeezing Jemma’s hand in hers. “On my end, I couldn’t stop thinking about how smart you sounded and how gracefully you dealt with all of your dirtbag coworkers.”

“Okay, fine. Maybe it can be our song. It isn’t all bad.” Jemma’s lips twisted into an embarrassed grin with a blush.

“It’s Africa by Toto. The only things that would be worse would be Never Going to Give You Up or Everytime We Touch.” Skye chuckled understandingly, with adoration in her eyes.

“Honestly, it would have to be something awful to be our song. We could never have a normal song. Look at our insane lives and relationship.” Jemma laughed in reply and reached forward to turn the song up.

For the rest of their drive to the airport, Skye purposefully found the worst and most meme-y songs she possibly could. She and Jemma both sing-yelled along to all of them with no shame. Later they would have a slight amount of shame for knowing all of the words. Jemma couldn’t find Skye any more adorable. It was amazing how far they had come since that truly ridiculous party. Back then, they had existed in a state of mutual silent admiration. It had taken a long time for the two women to break out of that and neither of them could be more grateful.


End file.
